Risk & Business Magazine Walsh Duffield Companies Spring 2016 | Page 22
Big Mistakes Interviewers Make
Learn How to Avoid Them
AN INTERVIEW OF DR. BRAD SMART, AUTHOR AND PRESIDENT AND CEO OF TOPGRADING, INC.
A
fter interviewing candidates for
hire, do you have an agonizing
feeling in your gut that candidates gave
you such vague answers you didn’t really
get to know them? Do more than half
of the people you hire turn out to be
disappointments?
If so, you are in good company. Dr.
Brad Smart has conducted more
than 6,500 hiring interviews and
has taught thousands of managers
how to avoid costly mis-hires. At
TopgradingCaseStudies.com you can
read dozens of case studies in which
companies large and small improved
from hiring 26% high performers to
85% HIGH performers.
Q: Brad, what is the #1 mistake
interviewers make?
Brad: Interviewers simply don’t ask
good follow up questions when they get
vague answers to questions, particularly
questions about mistakes, failures, or
weaker points.
lot of mis-hires occur. You should have
asked follow-up questions, probes that
pin down exactly if the candidate has a
serious communications problem.
Q: Give us an example of generalities
and of how to fix them.
Brad: OK.
C(andidate): My manager, Susan Smith,
criticized my communications skills.
Y(ou): How exactly did she want you
to communicate better? (Rephrase the
question.)
C: It was my communications with my
peers.
Y: In what specific ways did your manager
want you to communicate better with
peers? (Ask for specifics.)
C: I guess I asked them to support my
initiatives but did not communicate
enough to really get them on board and
supportive.
Y: Give me an example? (Ask again for
specifics.)
C: Ok, as a sales manager I asked my
peers to support big promotions, but
at times I wouldn’t be clear about
exactly what operations or marketing
managers should do.
Y: How would Susan rate your peer
relations overall? (Nail down how
serious it is)
C: Susan rated me Good my first year,
but challenged me to rise to Very Good
by the second year, and I did. It wasn’t
rocket science – I just needed to be
more thorough initially and be more
available to answer questions. On a
team survey my peers rated me a 6.5 in
Peer Relationships the first year but 7.5
– 8 after that year. (Good for you. You
probed enough to get a clear picture of
the problem AND how serious it is. It’s
apparently not very serious. )
Q: Are candidates as honest as in this example?
Brad: Yes, because Topgrading injects candidates with a powerful “truth
serum,” one that high performers welcome but low performers hate.
Q: What is the Topgrading “truth serum?”
Brad: Candidates are told from the start that THEY will eventually have to
arrange reference calls with former managers and others YOU choose. So if
you were to talk with Susan you’d say the candidate admitted having some
issues with peers, and would she please comment on that. Candidates know
that they can’t get away with fudging the truth, so low performers and BSers
drop out. They know they can’t get away with hiding their weaker points so
they tend to hint at them … but really tell all when interviewers probe.
Q: Got it. So your recommendations
#1 Use the truth serum
#2 Keep asking probing follow up questions if the candidate
has give vague answers
#3 Conduct reference checks like with Ms. Smith to verify
what the candidate said
Brad: Right!
Q: How can our readers learn more?
Brad: They can go to Topgrading.com and download
Topgrading 301, a 40-page eGuide.
Q: For example …
Brad: Suppose you are talking to your
candidate about a job 5 years ago and
ask, “What would your manager in that
job, Susan Smith, say you should improve
at?” Suppose your candidate responds,
“She said I should communicate better.”
This could mean a lot of things … maybe
the candidate is slow to return calls, or
uses bad grammar, or speaks too softly,
or is uncooperative with peers, or is not
a good public speaker, or is cold in most
communications, or breaks confidences,
or fails to speak up when there is a
problem, or 20 other things. Maybe
“communications” is not a weaker point
… or a fatal flaw. You just don’t know.
You could assume that “everyone
could communicate better” and go on
to the next question. But you haven’t
learned if the candidate has a serious
communications problem. That’s how a
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SPRING 2016
Dr. Brad smart is an internationally renowned
management psychologist and is generally
regarded as the world’s leading expert on hiring
best practices. He has written 5 books on hiring
including the New York Times/Wall Street
Journal best seller Topgrading: 3rd Edition.
Topgrading methods have enabled hundreds
of small companies and leading companies
such as General Electric, Barclays, American
Heart Association, and Barclays to more than
triple their success hiring high performers.
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