Hiring Manager Insights For Making Good Decisions

The three-dimensional approach

 
Even though candidates are scarce, hiring managers still must be diligent and consistent in their interview and selection process. While there are plenty of variation in styles, processes and perspectives when approaching partnering with hiring managers, in HR, it is important to screen in a consistent and holistic way.
 
When an organization uses assessments and spend time training their leaders on effective interviewing, selection and onboarding tactics, they are at a great advantage. However, this can be quite difficult, especially when the time and resources for that level of supportive tools are not available. This is particularly true today, when there are fewer candidates to choose from and hiring managers are eager to make a choice.

A Simple Three-Dimensional Approach

Most hiring managers respect the role of the recruiter and know that the HR department is filled with expertise, so they will likely be receptive to being advised throughout the process.
 
When faced with the long list of compliance-related training that organizations are required to handle, effective interview training can fall off the radar. While courses can be made available online for leaders to view at their convenience, there is often little time to take advantage of these options. The answer can be to hit hiring managers at the beginning of the process with a very simple approach: assessing candidates through a three-dimensional lens that examines experience, capabilities and behavioral traits.
 
Companies may be thinking, “We do already that!,” and while that may be true, it is most important to be consistent in partnering with hiring managers to ensure execution.

Experience, Capabilities and Behavioral Traits Defined

Interviews should begin by discussing the candidate’s experience. This dimension is often thoroughly vetted by the recruiter prior to the beginning of the process. However, hiring managers should still review thoroughly before interviewing so that they are familiar with the individual’s experience and know if it will fit well into the particular role. One to three questions should be appropriate.
 
Within all the dimensions, there is an art to writing and asking questions to be the most effective. Even though behavioral traits is a dimension of its own, weaving the discovery of behavioral attributes into every question is integral. A person’s behavior does not fundamentally change over the course of their adult life, so their past performance will likely predict future performance. Therefore, when scripting all questions, refrain from phrasing that leads with “how would you…”; but rather, “how did you.” This approach causes candidates to explain experiences by describing real situations, rather than hypothetical or sensationalized situations.
 
For example, when looking for an organizational development or process improvement consultant, this theory can translate into an experience related question such as, “This position is responsible for process improvement initiatives. Please describe your experience using process improvement methodologies. Describe the methods you have used and how you managed those processes to successful outcomes? Looking back, was there anything you would have done differently to achieve even stronger outcomes?”
 
This last question is the behavioral piece, and can help to discover insight such as how reflective or coachable the candidate is. While no human is perfect, it is how open individuals are to change and if they possess the desire to be a lifelong learner that can make one employee stronger over another. Thus, if you do not ask, you will not be able to properly compare candidates without getting this more concrete information.
 
Digging into the candidate’s capabilities is the key to discovering if they have the ability to do the job well. First, define the key capabilities needed in this role to perform. Then, formulate targeted questions that ask about those capabilities in a similar format as the earlier example. For example: “Please describe a project you led to improve a process. Describe the initiative. What was the outcome? Looking back was there anything you would have done differently?” In both this example and the last, calling on past experiences helps to gauge how the candidate would react to future, hypothetical workplace situations or problems.
 
The last and most important part in a thorough interviewing process is discovering whether candidates have the right behavioral traits to be a good fit, not only in the specific role, but also in the greater team and organization. Again, this is where it is necessary to define the most critical traits and script questions – those that will help to uncover the facts. For example, if a hiring manager has a lot of strong personalities on their team, a question that might draw out insight may be as follows: “Describe a situation you faced with a co-worker, in looking back, you wished you would have handled differently? How has that experience impacted you as you face similar situations?” Again, asking about specific past examples can help to paint a picture of a candidate’s future actions.

Supporting Your Hiring Managers to See it Through

It is important to support hiring managers and hold them accountable to a thorough approach. This can be aided by creating supporting materials, such as a short PowerPoint or instructional document that is presented as the recruitment process is kicked off, “build your own” interview guide templates and sample questions that they can plug and play, and correlating evaluations tools so they round out the selection in a consistent way.
 
At the end of the day, employees provide hiring managers the support they need so that they can evaluate their candidates consistently and holistically, leading to better hires for the organization.

Author Bio

Jill Holomek Bothwell is Senior Product Manager, Human Capital Management at Infor. Visit www.infor.com Connect Jill Holomek Bothwell