INTERVIEW ISSUES (PT 2)

Last time we started to look at some of the unplanned issues that arise during an interview, with the focus on candidates providing too much or too little information, or wandering off on tangents. We'll now continue the theme and look at how to handle some other curve balls that can derail your well planned interview, so that you can still find out the information you need.

The Candidate Avoids The Question:

This is quite common, particularly amongst sales people: the candidate avoids your question or provides an answer to a question they would rather you had asked. This might be a good trait if you are looking to hire a politician but it doesn't help you in the slightest if you are trying to decide if they have the right experience and behaviours for your role.

If this happens in an interview you're conducting, don't be afraid to interrupt them and ask the same question again. Do this a second and third time if necessary - until they do answer the question you have asked. The information is important to you, otherwise you would not have asked for it.

If obtaining an answer to the question is proving very problematic then don't hesitate to be upfront and ask for an explanation as to why they're not answering your question. Interviews shouldn’t descend into a battle of wills but you need the information and you now need to know why it's not forthcoming.

A candidate answering the wrong question once or maybe twice during an interview can be acceptable because it could be the result of their enthusiasm to impart information that they believe will help them win the role. If this is the reason, they should be easy to bring on track by asking the same question again.

Looking at judging whether you'd employ someone who's been hard to get straight answers out of, you will have to consider how easy it will be to manage them and obtain straight answers when they are working for you. To reiterate, avoiding questions once or maybe twice is probably going to be OK, but if it happens several times it should raise concerns about their listening skills or - even worse - their integrity.

If these concerns are starting to arise, then tackle them during the interview with follow- up questions which probe their listening skills and integrity.

• For listening skills try: “Describe the last time a miscommunication at work arose?” Or “Talk me through the last time you misunderstood a client requirement?” Then probe the answer.
• For integrity try: “How far have you gone in order to close a deal?” Or “Talk me through the rules in your current role that you do not agree with?” Then probe the answer.

The Candidates Doesn’t Tell The Truth:

I believe that most people are honest and think that most of the time the information received during an interview is true, but you do need to be primed to spot the untruths or the exaggeration of their contribution to particular pieces of work.

The key is in your preparation - this will ensure that that you are armed with your probing questions and requests for plenty of examples. By listening closely and asking questions during the candidate’s answers you will be able to get to the level of detail that will spot untruths or exaggerations. Asking for more than one example will provide validation. Most people can create one example but creating more which are congruent is very difficult and will frequently generate anomalies. Remember, we are not making assumptions. To prevent issues arising further down the line, keep questioning and obtaining detail until you are sure you have received all the information you need.

Differentiate between 'I did' and 'we did'. 'We' can conceal the candidate’s individual contribution. Letting it go means that you are assuming their contribution and making judgements on poor information. Interrupt when 'we' is used, and ask what the candidate specifically did. A couple of such interruptions and the candidate will provide “I” answers from thereon and talk about their contributions only.

Volunteered Information:

Discussing information that is proffered by the candidate is a great way of losing control of the interview and allowing the candidate to tell you what they want to tell you. You have your questions and these are what you want answered to ascertain whether they have the experience and behaviours suitable for your requirements.

Most volunteered information will not help much and as such will be a distraction. Interrupt the candidate politely, along the lines of: “Many thanks for this, it may be useful and if so we can come back to it but it is important for you and I that we both make the right decision and as such I have some questions to run through first to help me with my decision making. We can run through your questions and any additional information that you think will help afterwards. Is that OK?” Then you can come back to your questions and you have control of the interview again.

Candidate Nerves:

We have looked at this in previous issues but it is worth highlighting again. The candidate will be nervous even though you put them at ease before you started the interview. They will provide you with a clear picture of whether they are the right person for you as long as they remain positive during the interview so there are some dos and don'ts to ensure that this happens:

• Do compliment achievements during the interview. The candidate feels good and happily provides the rest of the information you require. You can then accurately assess whether this is what you want.
• Do show that you are 'on their side'. Some of your questions will be seeking responses to negative questions and you want the candidate to be open with you. Instead of asking; talk me through the last time you had to deal with an angry client? Make an empathetic statement first, for example: "Despite our best efforts we all have events that conspire against us which result in an angry client. What were the circumstances around your last angry client?"
• Don’t put down a candidate. The information is what it is and even if it seems insignificant to you it may be important to the candidate. The quickest way to have an ineffective interview is to damage the confidence of the candidate. If the experience and behaviour is not what you want then you have the information you need to make your decision but the candidate should leave feeling pleased they met you and keen to extol the virtues of you and your company, even if you do not move forward with them.

Failure to maintain a positive environment during the interview will result in poorly answered questions which could lead you to exclude a candidate from your final selection whereas a more conducive environment would have established that you had an excellent potential employee who was going to take your business forward.

Even worse, if you do decide that the candidate is the ideal person you want, if you've failed to keep the interview positive you may find that they decide against working with you, which would leave you having to either accept second best (which you shouldn’t) or start the whole process again.

In Summary:

If, despite your best efforts, an interview remains hard to control in terms of establishing what the person has and hasn’t done then there is a good chance that your working life with this person will be challenging too. So if the interview has been a struggle to keep on track there are two areas to consider:

• Were the interview questions you prepared prior to the interview not specific enough? Did that mean the candidate did not have enough information to understand what you were looking for, so was it the case that they answered as best they could.

or

• Was it the case that the candidate was reluctant to provide the specifics you were looking for and this happened throughout the interview, despite your questions being clear and appropriately specific. If this is the case then the candidate will be unlikely to have the experience or the behavioural patterns you're looking for. Ultimately, you would have to ask yourself whether you want to have someone working for you who cannot communicate clearly with you and is reluctant to let you know what and how they are doing?

Next Time:

Closing the interview for maximum effect.