Find Great People Align HR FGP Technology

Have you ever interviewed someone that during the first ten minutes of the interview you felt would be a great fit for your organization, and eventually did not work out? This happens too often in many different organizations. Why? Many times hiring managers will overvalue first impressions and allow emotions and biases formed in the first ten minutes of the interview to dominate.

When hiring, measure both performance and personality.

The key is not to evaluate people based upon how well they interview. Interviewing skills do not reflect competency. So, how can you hire strong people and accurately evaluate their competency?

When hiring, measure both performance and personality. Measure performance first, and personality second. It is recommended that you never form a hiring opinion within the first thirty minutes.

In order to prevent this and hire “Great People”, try the following from Lou Adler’s “Hire with Your Head” when you have to conduct your next interview:

1. Keep track of your initial emotional response to the person. Write down the person’s impression and how you reacted to it.
2. Delay the start of the interview by giving a facility or office tour. Show the most recent products or introduce them to other people. This will put you and the person at ease. In addition, solicit questions during this time. The quality of the response is a direct reflection of their insight.
3. Use a structured interview. Pre-planned questions will help you overcome a first impression, good or bad. Also, ask the same questions to everyone so you can compare answers.
4. Ask questions to evaluate past job performance and character. Then form an impression again after thirty minutes and compare it to your initial gut feeling. Ask yourself why you initially liked or dislike the person. Remember, many “great people” are not the best at interviewing, so make sure you conduct a before and after comparison.
5. Be tough on the people you like and give the benefit of the doubt to the people that are not as strong. If you are tough on the people you like and they respond appropriately, then you will feel even better about them moving forward.
6. Listen more than you talk. Ask questions and listen carefully to the answers. If someone makes a strong first impression, then the interviewer will tend to talk too much and not listen because they are comfortable with the person.
7. Treat people as technical experts or customers, not as “candidates”. If you put them on an equal level, the person will be more comfortable and you will do more listening.
8. Talk about real challenges or problems. Try to turn the interview into a problem solving session. You will learn a lot about the person’s technical skills, ability to visualize problems and how they develop solutions.

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