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Creating a great candidate experience is one of the most critical components for success when hiring. The biggest challenge in doing so is that most hiring managers do not have formal training on how to interview candidates well, let alone create a good experience for candidates. At risk of burning some bridges, I’m going to pick on technical companies to illustrate my point and share advice on how to do better.
The career progression for most hiring managers in a technical space starts with going to college for a specific degree, e.g. chemistry or mechanical engineering. They leave school, join a company as an individual contributor and after a handful of successful projects, they become a manager. They adopt responsibility to oversee people and hire additional people, seemingly overnight. There is never a training program that teaches them how to interview applicants effectively (or manage for that matter; a topic for another day).
What happens next is other individual contributors are identified and brought in to interview, usually with the help of an internal HR team or recruiter. The technical hiring manager will use a list of scripted interview questions or give prompts like, “tell me about a time you were resilient.” Not only do scripted interviews feel off-putting, but they give the impression that the hiring manager is not actually interested in the individual applying (e.g. interviewing is just an item to check off a list). Discouraged by a lackluster interview process, candidates will look elsewhere for a company with more enthusiastic management.
The interview process is a complex dance of balancing both specific questions to determine if someone can do a job and fluid conversation to assess personality fit. Without training in the latter category, the result is an off-balance conversation that does not reliably filter in the right people. To put it another way, imagine a first date where one person asks the other 100% of the questions, all focused on the previous experience. There would never be a second date.
So, how can we do a better job of creating a great experience?
Start with defining the ideal process, from first touch point all the way through to onboarding a new hire. Speed of communication needs to be emphasized, as well as clarity of expectations for hiring managers. Who in the company is talking about culture and what the company does? When does that happen? How do we hand off information and notes? Make sure each person’s role is defined well. If your company is using virtual interviews as a step in the process, everyone involved should be coached on how to present well. That might mean how to make eye contact (look in the camera lens), how to pass the ball to the next speaker (use names), or a reminder to stay off your phone and email while in the meeting (we can see you typing). Once your team is in lock step on virtuals, getting the in person meetings down is next.
When bringing someone in for a meeting, incorporate a facility tour (when applicable) before settling down in a meeting room. Make sure to offer water or other refreshments. During a tour is a great time to tell the company’s story and talk about culture, mission and people on the team. As the tour leads to a sit-down, resist the temptation to plant the nebulous, “tell me about yourself.” Ask a more specific question instead, e.g. “Tell me about why you chose to pursue X,” where X could be a degree or former company. Specifics will elicit more useful information.
Additional questions that spark a real conversation:
- How does this position fit into your vision of your life?
- What quality in a manager would you be most afraid to lose and why?
- Teach me, in as much detail as possible, about your [field]? Assume I don’t know anything about the field.
The secret sauce here is to ask follow-ups to reveal more about an applicant’s communication style and depth of knowledge.
During the meeting, give applicants room to ask their own questions early. If helpful, imagine you are talking to a friend’s parent at a barbecue; address their curiosity like it’s a conversation, not an interrogation.
As the meeting wraps up, there should be a process for what happens next. Who is following up with who, what the timeline is for feedback and next steps and when the candidate should expect to hear more should all be made clear. If an applicant is not moving forward, sharing actionable feedback will be appreciated and stick out to the candidate (most companies don’t do this). If there is a next step, it needs to be scheduled within 72 hours of the most recent communication. The longer a company waits to move, the more likely the candidate loses interest.
Candidates will remember how they feel in the interview process. If they feel like a cog in a machine during the interview, they won’t be enthused about joining the business. If they feel like there is an engaging team and rewarding opportunity, they’ll be much more likely to move forward with conviction.
To address your concern, yes, taking the time to train folks to do this well is expensive. Hiring the wrong people, though, costs a fortune.
