The capacity of any business to grow and prosper is directly linked to the personalities, interaction and abilities of the employees…the people who actually make the business run. Hiring the ideal candidate for the job is a big responsibility. In most small businesses, unless there is a human resources department or outside HR assistance, that job usually falls to the business owner.
Yes, one more responsibility for the multi-functional small business owner. The pitfalls here for an owner with poor interview skills can lead to either loosing the ideal candidate or hiring someone who doesn't fit or is unqualified to do the job.
Now we can't turn you into a brilliant, incisive interviewer in one short article, but we can provide some tips and offer some sound advice on how to prepare and conduct an interview that should help bring about the results you are looking for.
Before you Place your Ad
Determine the position you are advertising and if it is a new position prepare a job description. If the job has a description, this is a great time to review it.
Screening
With today's mobile work force no matter where you advertise for the job, you will probably be overwhelmed with the response. At first this is flattering, then it becomes a challenge to select the candidates you wish to interview. You can either sort through all of these applications on your own or get some help to narrow them down to a manageable size.
The Interview
The sole purpose of the interview is to find out enough about the candidates to make the best possible hiring choice.
Some people find it helpful to set up a structure for the interview and share it with the candidate. When you introduce yourself, try to break the ice and ease the tension by offering coffee, tea, water and add a few personal comments to set the other person at ease.
Provide a comfortable, but not too comfortable, setting for the interview. The candidate should be at ease and not feel threatened. When you are conducting the interview, give it your full attention; hold you calls and ask your staff no to interrupt unless it is important.
Always remember that when you are interviewing a prospect, the prospect is interviewing you, but not always with questions. It is your responsibility to present yourself and your company in the best possible light. Be cordial but business-like, be professional, stay away from inappropriate or prying personal questions. Age, race, religion, political leanings are strictly taboo.
Tell the candidate about your company. The company history, the current business climate and your future plans. If you have an information kit or annual report, you may wish to share this with candidates you decide to invite back.
Share your job description with the interviewee and try to determine if the skill set presented will fulfill the needs of the job.
Make a list of questions beforehand and bring the list into the interview. This will keep you on track and provide an easy "score sheet" you can review later.
Try to ask open-ended situational questions that will help reveal the candidate's intelligence, capabilities, reaction to situations and common sense. You are trying to determine how the person will react in certain circumstances. In particular to the job opportunity you are extending.
Take notes, over and above the score sheet you have put together. When have interviewed multiple candidates, it will be difficult to keep them separate in your head. Notes will help.
Post Interview
Share your results with others in the office, either partners or people who will be working directly with the new hire and perhaps make them part of the process in the second meeting.
No Guarantees
While we suggest these general tips may help make the hiring process easier, they don't come with an iron-clad guarantee. The more you work with them, the easier the process will probably become.
According to a past poll in the Harvard Business Review the three most sought after business skills today are:
- The ability to communicate, both written and verbal.
- The ability to solve problems.
- The ability to get along with others.
Everything else, respondents say, can be taught.
