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3 Pre-Interview Strategies for Hiring A-Players
By Mildred Munjanganja | July 8, 2009
I will be the first to admit that I have made one or two pretty costly hiring decisions. Decisions that have wasted a lot of valuable time drained the company’s resources and cost a significant amount of money. It’s through these mistakes that strategies are born. The potentially best or worst decision you may ever make for your organization is who you choose to allow through your doors, to sit at your desks, represent you and make decisions on the company’s behalf. People are your most valuable asset.
Interviews have become predictable, with candidates taking courses on how to perfect their resume’s and answer obvious interview questions – almost anyone can excel at this game. The less predictable an interview is, the easier it is to determine how a candidate will perform on the job.
A few things you can do before the interview:
- Call the candidate: This is your initial contact with the candidate which will help to form the first impression. Was it easy to reach the candidate? Are there any observations you can make about the candidate from your initial conversation? I was looking for a Marketing Specialist at one point and got on the phone to speak to a candidate with a rather impressive resume, I was subjected to listening to the lyrics of Eminem’s “Yellow Brick Road” as the ring-tone – before the candidate picked up the phone with the greeting ‘What?’ It was then that I decided he would not be coming into my office for an interview.
- Schedule the interview giving some strict instructions: Ask the candidate to send you a resume and cover letter – you will be able to use this to determine if the candidate is able to follow instructions or if they are prompt and courteous. You can also look at the content of the resume to determine how neat or sloppy they are, as well as their level of literacy. Examine resumes critically, gaps in employment can have significant meanings and at times it may be necessary to follow-up on that 4.0 GPA.
- Assign something for the candidate to complete before the interview: Depending on the position, you may ask the candidate to do a relevant task. I often ask candidates to go to our website and then I ask them for their observations. Is the information they relay specific, insightful and well thought-out. Does the candidate actually perform the task? Do they look for opportunities of improvement?
Use as many avenues as possible to find the best people; this will help to increase your chances of hiring an A’ Player. Take your time, it will save you sleepless nights later on. People are genuinely your best asset and they can make or break your company, so be sure to look over resume’s carefully, cross-check your facts and hire for success. As Bill Gates once said:”Take our twenty best people away, and I will tell you that we would become an unimportant company”
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