|
March 2007
It’s hard to break through the candidate’s interview personae
and get to the real person behind. This is even truer for telephone
interviewing since you can’t observe the employee’s facial
expressions and other body language.
Here are some tips to listen for:
|
|
Listen to the candidate’s
voice message. Job hunters frequently forget that we’re screening
for all sorts of things and one of the first things we hear is
their voice message. Even though we may be calling them at home
or on their cell, their message needs to match what we’re
looking for in a candidate. I’ve heard children’s messages,
monotonic messages, and inappropriate messages.
|
|
|
How does the candidate answer
the phone? Politely, bored, with enthusiasm? Most of the positions
I’m hiring for require effective communication skills. So
when the person answers the phone with a one syllable word, my
radar is already up.
|
|
|
When you’re playing telephone
tag, what kind of message do they leave you? This week I received
the most professional response. The candidate clearly gave her
name, stated the day and date and the reason for her call. She
gave her telephone number and several times for me to reach her.
Then she repeated her name and telephone number, ending with a
positive comment. Her voice was clear, professional, and interested.
Considering this opening was for a customer service / telephone
type of position, I knew I had a strong candidate.
|
|
|
When you’re on the phone,
what kind of distractions will the candidate tolerate? We all
know that as soon as the phone rings, the kids start crying or
demanding the parent’s attention. But I ignore that. I don’t
ignore how the candidate handles the noisy child or me during
the call. Interestingly, few candidates have actually put me on
hold while they deal with the kids.
|
|
|
One of the most important
things I listen for is how effectively the person communicates
– from the speaking and listening perspectives. I’ve
had people control the conversation and not answer my questions.
They don’t get a second chance. I’ve heard people with
serious grammatical errors. I’ve had people talk over me,
go off on tangents, get real angry about previous jobs or tell
me about the details of their illnesses. They forget it’s
an interview. And I forget they’re a candidate.
|
|
I’m listening for the
usual, intelligence, interest, personality, job skills and knowledge.
But they also must pass the Arlene Sense of Humor Test. If they
can laugh with me and make me laugh, then I know I have someone
who’s comfortable with themselves and most likely more comfortable
on the job.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
If
you're not
having fun
with your
human resources,
call Arlene today
at 952-996-0975 |
| |
|
|
|
Calling
All Candidates
|
 As
the type of consulting services I provide seems to come in waves,
recently I’ve been helping several clients with their hiring
needs: conducting interviews, creating interview questionnaires
and helping them with selection.
One of the things I realized years ago in my consultant role
is that I can save the client lots of time (and money) if I
pre-screen the candidates by telephone rather than taking the
time to conduct screening interviews in person. Many of you
may already take advantage of this method, but if you don’t,
it’s time to consider a new approach.
After identifying the top 4-8 candidates (if we’re lucky
enough to have a large applicant pool), I script a 10-15 question
telephone interview and start dialing. I briefly describe the
position and organization and start asking questions. What are
you attracted to this position? Why are you in the job market?
What are you looking for in your next position?
Then the zinger! What are your salary requirements? Typically,
there’s a brief silence on the other line. I might get,
“It’s negotiable.” But I don’t let them
off the hook so easily. You see, if they want $20 an hour and
my client is paying $10, I don’t want to waste anyone’s
time – mine, the client’s or the candidate’s.
I’ve known people who don’t ask this question until
the very end of the interview process. Ooooh. I can’t imagine
discovering after multiple interviews and all that time invested
(or lost) that we’re not in sync on pay.
What are the other tough questions you need to discover? How
about work hours? I conducted a telephone interview the other
evening with a candidate. As soon as I mentioned the job required
30-35 hours per week, which was my first or second sentence,
the candidate started talking me out of hiring her. “Well,
I really want to work only three days and I can’t work
any evenings or weekends, and I have to be flexible for my two-year
old, and…”
Copyright (c)
2007 Arlene Vernon, HRx, Inc.
|
|
Some
Candidates Really Don't Want The Job
|
A friend of mine recently
shared the philosophy that, “Employees terminate themselves.”
I think we all know these individuals whose performance, attitude
or behavior is consistently poor. They know that the next
step is termination, but they continue doing whatever doesn’t
work in the organization. They basically terminate themselves.
Well, I think many of our applicants do the same – consciously
and unconsciously. They talk the interviewers out of hiring
them before we even ask them the hard questions. In this case,
all I mentioned was the work hours (which were stated in the
header of in the employment ad) and yet she started back-pedaling.
The benefits of telephone interviews are extensive. I’d
rather spend 5 minutes on the phone with someone who self-screens
out of the process, then have to spend 30 minutes with them
in person. You can’t end a live interview in the first
5 minutes when you discover the person isn’t a good fit
to the job or the organization. Well, I guess you can –
but most of us don’t. And few of us have lots of time
to waste.
If the candidates pass the wage test in the telephone interview,
then I start to ask about their job skills and add behavioral
questions. I try to stay away from true fluff questions. Instead,
I ask questions that begin with describe, give me an example
of, how have you… The more open-ended and thought provoking
the question, the better your chance of getting a real answer
as opposed to a planned answer.
One of my primary interview objectives is to try to get the
candidate to tell me something he or she didn’t mean
to say. It could be relaxing them enough to show their real
sense of humor, or how bad their previous boss was, or their
attitude about coworkers or customers, or their real opinion
on _____. I give them the chance to really open up, knowing
the more real and personable I am, the more real and open
they’ll be.
If you’re not already using telephone screening to your
advantage, it may be time to start. If your current telephone
interviewing practices aren’t working, try deepening
the questions or lengthening the call to get the information
and insight you really need to determine whether the candidate
is qualified enough to come in for an interview.
Copyright (c) 2007
Arlene Vernon, HRx, Inc.
|
| About
Arlene Vernon |
|
Arlene Vernon,
PHR, partners with small businesses as their Human Resource Xpert
to create their HR systems and solve their HR problems.
If you have gaps in your HR operation, have an employee problem
to solve, or want to enhance your managers' skills, call Arlene
today. Learn how HRx can save you time and help you avoid costly
HR mistakes. HRx, Inc., Eden Prairie, MN 55344, 952-996-0975,
www.HRxcellence.com.
|
|
Subscriber
Info
|
|
HRx, Inc.
respects your privacy and does not give out or sell subscriber
names and/or e-mail addresses.
Feel free to pass this newsletter to your friends and colleagues
as long as the entire newsletter is kept intact. If this newsletter
has been forwarded to you, please sign
up to receive your own copy. If you wish to be taken off this
list simply send
an email.
|
|
Share
This Article
|
| This article is available
for your use or reprinting in web sites or company communications
with the agreement that Arlene's biographical information above
and a link to her website is included with the article. |
|
