Screening Candidates: Finding the Right One for the Job

Gone are the days when you could ask a few simple questions about work experiences, review a resume, maybe call one or two references, and hire a person. These days, recruiters need to find out more about a candidate before even granting them an interview. Finding out as much as you can about the position and the candidates before an interview, developing a sound interviewing strategy, and using testing and simulation methods will help you find the right candidates.

Research Open Positions

As soon as a position in your company becomes available, you should begin conducting research. This includes asking hiring managers, department heads, administration, and others what is expected of those who fill the position. Understanding the tasks, responsibilities, hours candidates will need to devote to their work, if they will be interacting with clients and customers, and if they will be responsible for other employees will give you a better idea of which types of people are suited for the position.

 

This will also give you enough information to prepare a pre-interview questionnaire, self-assessment tests, and whether to conduct a pay-at-risk assessment.

Materials you will need when conducting research include:

• Past new hire evaluations
• Hiring manager feedback
• Past job descriptions
• List of job tasks
• Salary range
• Day-to-day tasks/monthly tasks/periodic tasks
• Impression of the last employee who held the position
• Why last employee left

Many times interviews will not tell you everything you need to know about a candidate. You will need to have a good idea of the position you are trying to fill in order to find the right candidates for the job, not the other way around.

 

Choosing the Candidates

Choosing from a pile of candidate resumes and trying to narrow them down can be a daunting task. While it has to be done, there are ways to do this that will actually help later on during the face-to-face interview process. Ways to narrow down candidates include:

• Pre-interview questionnaire
• Self-assessment questionnaire
• Skills testing
• Phone interview
• Samples of past work (reports, proposals, marketing materials, etc.)

Using what you have learned about the position and the type of person hiring managers are looking for, you will be able to narrow your scope and find candidates that meet some or all of the requirements before interviewing them.

 

When testing candidates on skills and technical ability, you may want to have the top performers in your company take the same tests. You will be able to judge candidate success much better when you have company standards to compare them to.

 

There are ethical and legal guidelines for creating skills testing and pre-interview questionnaires, so be sure to follow them. Many companies have their own set of questions that are appropriate for candidate testing.

 

Preparing for an interview

After narrowing down candidates, you will need to schedule interviews. When preparing for the interview, you should:

 

Create verbal simulations – These are scenarios that ask candidates how to solve a work-related problem, forecast where changes need to be made, or how to handle employee issues.

 

Job content simulations – These are similar to verbal simulations except you will be presenting a scenario that directly affects the quality of the candidates work or job function. Learning more about how a candidate can solve these problems or work around them is a good indication of how they handle stress, employee issues, and how they use critical thinking and problem solving skills.

 

Ask for ideas – Many companies want to hire people who are not only good at their jobs, but who are also innovative. Asking candidates for their ideas about an issue that affects the department they would be working in or one that affects the company in general. These problems do not have to be too specific, but should highlight issues that relate to the industry in general or specific procedures that are used by many companies.

Review sample work – If you asked for samples from candidates, review them to see if they are good enough. Check with hiring managers to see if the work reflects the type of person they want working in their department. Ask specific questions during the interview to gain more insight.

Interviews should be given to those who have shown exemplary results on tests, self-assessments, and work samples. It is easier to pick a candidate who will be successful at your company when you are picking from a handful of successful candidates.

 

The Challenges of Conducting an Interview

By rethinking the purpose and functionality of the interview process, you will be able to use it as one tool in many instead of the only measuring tool. Interviews should be granted only when you know enough about a candidate. This will lead to fewer surprises during the interview and will make hiring decisions much easier.

 

As you begin to change the way you evaluate potential employees, you should notice that making a decision based on a resume and a few questions will not yield the best candidates. Seeing beyond the resume and getting to know more about the candidate and what they bring to a position will allow you to take a second look at those who may not have the experience of other candidates, but who possess the drive, passion, attention to detail, and the skills needed to perform well.

 

When using other tools that include questionnaires, simulations, and asking questions that are more problem solving in nature, rather than matter-of-fact, you will be able to see whether a candidate really has what it takes fill the position.

 

Interviews should be the last indicator in your search for new employees. If you have done your research, gotten back everything you asked for from the candidate, and reviewed samples of their work, you will most likely have made your decision before you conduct a face-to-face interview.

 

Conclusion

Enhancing your candidate evaluation tools and using them before scheduling an interview will help your company in the long run. If you are able to make hiring decisions with more confidence, retention rates will go up, employees will be happier in their positions, and your company will become more sought after by those entering the workforce or who want to change jobs.

Keeping interviews last on your list of tools to use when trying to fill a position may also help candidates. Some candidates do not interview well. They may get nervous or come across as arrogant or aggressive. Scheduling an interview first may give you the wrong impression of what candidates are capable of. Choosing the best of the best will help alleviate this problem.

 

Testing is another way to hold on to potential employees for other positions that may come up later on. If a candidate is not right for the current position, they may be a perfect match for another. Keeping testing information on record and adding candidates to your employee database is a great way to build connections.

 

After hiring employees using this method of evaluation and selection, ask specific questions about the hiring process in their new hire evaluation. This feedback can be very effective in tailoring your process and may spark new ideas for improving or enhancing the process.

 

By: Dakotta Alex