How to Improve Your Company's Interview and Applicant Selection Process

It's an understatement to say our team spends a lot ofcharacteristics and metrics that that we often refer to
our time thinking about hiring and recruiting. Over theduring interviews:
last decade we've gained experience by headingStart with Ability
recruiting companies and corporate recruitingObviously, if the potential candidate does not possess
departments, which eventually lead us to start athe ability to do the job at hand, none of their other
company that builds recruiting software. Team buildingqualities matter. It doesn't matter if this person can fit
has always been an integral piece of our experience.into the corporate culture or the long term picture if
When we started our first company an importantthey aren't able to complete the task at hand. There is
piece of advice we got was to develop a detailedno point in wasting your time, as well as the
selection process. This process involved creating acandidates', if they can't pass the test of basic
framework to evaluate our applicants efficiently andrequirements for the job. That is why we always start
rapidly to keep up in an extremely competitive market.with a measure of the candidate's ability, which most
We even enlisted the help of an industrial psychologistoften is a 'yes' or 'no' answer.
to streamline our interview process, which still worksMove onto Talent
today.Talent is most often gauged through posing problem
One thing we've noticed is that most of our customerssolving situations to the candidate and seeing how they
are also in very difficult environments for finding goodreact. This will tell us how this person's skill set can be
people. Engineers, IT guys, sales stars, marketingoptimized for our company's long term objectives, like
masters and various other talent is hard to come by. Inscaling a product or expanding to new vertical arenas.
addition, the recovering economy makes this pool ofFinish with Character, last but not least.
top talent even smaller than usual.If a candidate is extremely skilled, has all the abilities to
So how do you make your hiring process morecomplete the job, and fits into a company's long term
efficient?First, get your hands on some simple andobjectives, they would seem like a shoe-in. However, if
amazingly efficient applicant tracking software.their character doesn't jive with your management
Second, start interviewing smarter. It is clear that findingpractices and work culture, they shouldn't be a sure
the top talent is becoming harder and harder, so youhire. Character is symbiotic with employee retention:
need to adapt. Instead of only looking to increase youremployees that don't fit in, probably won't last.
hiring throughput, try to build on the skill-sets of currentSome ways to measure character are interview
employees to increase their value. Think of it like aquestions that test a person's behavioral and
baseball team's farm system, structured to build talentpsychological disposition. The person's responses can
over the long run. A well run interview process won'tbe measured not only with the content of their answer,
only prevent bad hires, but it will also prepare for a longbut also on their delivery (body language, inflection, etc.)
tail recruiting efficiency.Even if you have the best tools in the recruiting
We practice creating simulations of real-worldbusiness, your interview process needs to be polished
situations during our interviews to reduce the risk ofto make good hires. This 'balance' between an efficient
bad hires and also to allow us to measure aprocess and wise assessment requires training,
candidate's ability to adapt. Overall, there are three keyfeedback and strategy on all fronts.