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UNMASKING A CANDIDATE – THE ART OF EFFECTIVE INTERVIEWING – THE 5 P’S APPROACH
It takes a lot of work to find a good person to work for your company.
A smart recruiter must be able to distinguish between a talented prospect and an incompetent one because organizations are continuously competing for talented employees.
The interview process is the finest method for learning the truth and assuring oneself of a candidate’s abilities, competency, or lack thereof.
There is a little window of time during the interview process where one can satisfy oneself, calm one’s anxieties, and confirm that the candidate across the table is “the one.”
To be able to reveal someone within the time allotted for employment interviews requires a lot of talent.
As they say, “there is no art to find the mind’s construction in the face,” there is more to a person than meets the sight.
A job interview is an excellent chance for the interviewer and the candidate to get to know one another better.
Both of you are evaluating one another; the recruiter is doing so to more precisely forecast how a candidate would perform in the particular position that needs to be filled, and the prospect is doing so to learn more about the role and determine whether they want to work for that company.
Find below, my 5 Ps approach for interviewing. The objective is to provide you with techniques for conducting very good interviews that go a long way to unmasking a candidate and having a clear understanding of what they are actually made of.
Planning comes first when conducting an interview. Make a thorough outline of the entire interview process and choose a framework.
Planning the interview process enables you to cover the necessary aspects of the process and gives you a foundation for interviewing various candidates consistently. Additionally, it makes it simpler for you to control every candidate, efficiently evaluate them, and pull them into line when they ramble while responding to your questions. As you move along, you can adjust your plan to fit the unique circumstances. Planning includes selecting the interview process as well as setting up the interview venue and interview room.
What format do you want your interview to have? Will it be a question-and-answer session? Will you interview alone or with a small panel?
All of these must be planned ahead of time, and the interviewer must be certain of their objectives.
Planning for an interview clarifies your objectives and provides a timeline for the entire interviewing procedure.
The most effective interviews take place in an environment where both parties feel at ease.
The interview must be under your control as the interviewer, and you should avoid turning it into a contest of wits.
Take the lead and establish the interview’s theme.
As with everything else, it pays to adequately prepare before an interview. Interviewing is an art form and must be studied. You have to prepare a list of questions to ask and the questions must reflect your objectives. Your questions must be able to draw answers that will satisfy you. Your questions must be open-ended must be structured well, ones that will elicit a more detailed response.
Try to ask a good mix of questions, those that give insight into the candidate’s behaviour, elicit their opinion, demonstrate their experience, and reveal details about their background. Set out your objectives for every question and design counter questions to seek a further explanation when your objectives are not been realised as they answer your questions.
You must study the resume of the candidates very carefully, go over the CV with a fine tooth comb and try to identify the anomalies. Reviewing a resume in front of the candidate smacks of disorganization and poor preparation. It is also very difficult to detect anomalies in a CV during the interview process; firstly it distracts you and disorganises your thought process. A well-prepared interviewer is composed, asks direct questions and is able to identify irregularities in a candidate’s answer.
Interviewing is about probing and probing deeper. You need to satisfy yourself that the person sitting across the table is the one for the job, and you can only do that if you probe further. As stated above ask direct questions and counter questions that will probe into a candidate’s background, his likes and dislikes, his understanding of the job on hand, his approach and more importantly his suitability for the job. At the end of the interview, you should have a fairly good sense of the person’s likes and dislikes, along with their strengths and weaknesses. You should also be clear in your mind if they are suitable for the job. Probing deeper will enable you to differentiate a good candidate from a charlatan. You can probe deeper if you set out your goals, take charge of the interview and control the interview, making sure that you are satisfied at the end, and that the candidate walking out the door is the viable choice.
Closely related to the above is the need to be persistent. Listen to your instinct and persist on a particular line of questioning just to be sure. Try to find different ways of bringing out the truth and the true colour of a candidate. Don’t give up until you are fully convinced. If possible, request a further proof in terms of documentation and do some reference checking. You can even call the candidate after the interview and ask further questions. The flip side to being persistent is to look out for the persistent candidate. People naturally tend to be frustrated when you ask so many questions on a particular topic. The trick is to look out for candidates who take the pain to make you understand them deeper, candidates who persist to prove themselves to you.
Be patient, and try hard to uncover the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses. Being patient during interviews expects you to listen effectively and pay attention. Try not to reveal your immediate impression of the candidate through your gestures, expressions and actions. Be certain not to let negative reactions become obvious to the candidate and don’t give up on a candidate. You can write down your thoughts and observation but try to listen and understand what the candidate is saying. The key to effective listening is to do minimal talking. Try to establish rapport as much as possible and go out of your way to make the candidate comfortable.
Hiring the right person for a job can be very challenging; a job interview provides a valuable opportunity for you and the candidate to learn more about each other. An interview allows you to predict how a candidate will perform in a job situation and allows you to differentiate between potential employees. You can only get a full understanding of what a candidate is made of when you take the time to design a comprehensive interview process.
Michael Kuma Avuglah is a Human Resources Management professional. He is the Chief Operations Officer of Ghana HR Solutions ( http://ghanahrsolutions.com/old ) a Ghanaian Human Resource Consultancy with services in recruitment and organisational training and development. Ghana HR prides itself on having the employment strategies, a wide range of options and resources needed to recruit professional talent on demand.
At Ghana HR Solutions, we help your company find, train, develop and engage your people, with world-class human resource Solutions. We are known to work tirelessly with individuals, teams and organizations to increase performance and realize true potential.
By Michael Kuma Avuglah
At Ghana HR we support your organisation with strategic HR services. Our services range from Recruitment, Training and Development, Payroll Services, Employer of Record, and Salary Benchmarking among others. Outsource your HR to us and focus on your core functions. Talk to us about our newest service EA-for Hire and utilise the services of an Administrative Assistant. We have a large database of qualified administrative staff ready to support you with your admin work. Reach us directly at info@ghanahrsolutions.com at 0302797657