It matters who you have running your interviews. Pick good people, or train the not good ones.
This article is by HireBar's James Colino, and the HR pro makes some great points.
The Painful Truth
Most companies will let just about anyone be a part of an interview team. In fact, when I ask recruiting leaders -- “How do you decide who is qualified to interview candidates at your company?" -- they almost never have a strategy. The reality is that most companies don’t give interview team selection much thought. I would argue; however, that selecting the proper interview team is one of the most important things you can do to upgrade your interview process. The downside to poor interview team selection can be (among other things)... 1. Longer time-to-fill metrics (They can't make decisions) 2. Hiring the wrong person (They don't know how to interview) 3. A bad candidate experience (They don't take care of the candidate) ...And all of this leads to the decline of a company's employer brand.
Most engineers aren't born great interviewers. It requires study, training, and practice. Just because you have technical skill, it doesn't mean you have the soft skills or EQ needed to identify talent. This is one reason why pairing up two interviewers per session is valuable.
Let’s face it, most managers aren’t very good interviewers. But it’s not their fault!
Full-Circle Interviewing
For teams of a healthy size, we disagree with what Colino says about placing a severe restriction on the number of people allowed on the interview panel. He cites concerns about inconsistency in ability and goals, and this certainly can be an issue if you don't have control of your interview process. However, this is mitigated through communication and training. If your team understands the company's values, team technical needs, and has received training in good interviewing, the benefits of having a wide range of opinions and observations outweigh those concerns.
You also need to expose your candidate to as much of the organization as possible. Not doing so leads to greater problems with turnover, when new hires end up paired with someone they never met in the interview and the two don't get along. The author talks about not being afraid to "hurt feelings" of your existing team, but doesn't acknowledge that locking people out of the interview process that really should be a part of it also contributes to alienating your valuable employees and increasing turnover risk. There is a real cost to "hurt feelings".
At Interview Engineering, we advocate for full-circle interviews. Your candidates should be speaking with everyone with whom they'll be working. The more interviewers are involved, the more information you'll be able to gather about the candidate. More information equals better results.
Customer Feedback
If you really want to get a sense of how effective your interviewers are, simply ask your candidates! A great way to do this is to send them an anonymous survey immediately after the interview. You could ask them over the phone or in person, but you’ll get more honest answers using an anonymized survey.
A fantastic practice that we also endorse at Interview Engineering. Job candidates are eager to share their experiences with something that is so central to their livelihood, so this is one of those rare examples of a survey for which it won't be difficult to procure results. In a way, your interview process is a product and the job applicants are your customers. Your hiring managers and interview panelists are both practitioners AND customers. You should gather their thoughts as well.
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