People Leadership | No. 5

Interviews

Finding the right candidate for the job is crucial for the success of your business. The right candidate is the one that has the skills to perform well in the job but also has a character that fits well in the team that he or she will be working with. The interview process is where you as a leader identify these connections and make the right investment for your team and your vision.

If you are in an organization with an HR department, then finding the right candidate will be a joint effort. HR will typically be at the forefront, driving the overall interview process; preparing a job description to look attractive, narrowing down the list of participants to help you focus, making a job offer, and so on. If you are driving this process alone then you would need to take care of all of this process by yourself.

In both cases, you as the leader would need to take the decision of who would be the right person to onboard in the job and in your team. But how do you approach the different candidates and identify who is the right person?

Finding the right candindate

The process of hiring a new employee might differ from company to company. Some companies might have several interview rounds, conduct personality tests, and follow specific assessments during such a process. The end goal is for all the same, to find the best candidate for the job. Below we are breaking down this process into three steps that you as a leader, and in this role as the hiring manager could use to select the right candidate. The step themselves are not important, what is important is what you should be looking for in the candidates during these different stages.

CVs and Motivation Letters

A Curriculum Vitae (CV), a Latin word that stands for “course of life”, is how each candidate is how advertises himself or herself as the best-qualified candidate for the position. The CV is typically the first entry point into knowing a candidate. How well a CV is prepared in relation to the specific job, its structure, and flow shall allow you to start forming a first idea about the candidates’ profile and experience.

It is common for a candidate to be asked to submit also a motivation letter. A motivation letter is a short one-page-long letter that explains why the candidate is applying for the position and emphasizes some of the achievements and experiences related to the role. From the motivation letter, you can also get a better feeling of the candidates’ way of thinking, and what he or she sees as the most relevant reason for being the best candidate.

Having carefully reviewed the CVs and Motivation Letter, you should be able to form a first idea about a candidate and if you would him or her to progress in the next steps. Looking a candidate on paper might turn out to be very different from how he or she is in reality, so this is only the first step of the process before you progress to the next stage.

The first meeting

Once you have identified the potential candidates that could go to the next round, it is now time to reach them and let them know that you would like to have a further dialogue with them. As we are all more used to nowadays to virtual meetings you could choose this first meeting to be online. Having a meeting online can allow you to screen faster the candidates, as makes the availability and flexibility with regard to time and place easier.

In the first meeting, you are aiming to move a step close to understanding the motivation of the candidate, and if he or she will be a high performer and a great fit in your organization. You should inform the candidate in advance of what he or she is expected to discuss in the meeting so he or she can be better prepared.

A typical structure for this first meeting could be:

• Introduction and walk through the CV

• Expectations alignment for this role

• Presentation of the team and further discussion on the role.

The aim of the meeting is to enable the candidate to open up and share further his/her experiences and motivation. For you, it is clear which areas you would like to see the candidate performing, so you would need to listen to if these are indeed areas where the candidate gets his/her most energy and drive. It is good to be as generic as possible in some of the descriptions in order to allow the candidate to zoom in on the areas he/she thinks are the most relevant. It is during this first meeting that sometimes you might experience a very different person - for good or for bad – between what it is written on paper and what is in reality.

After each dialogue and based on your impression and what you have noted from the first meeting, you can decide if a candidate is to go to the next step, is rejected or you need a bit more time to think. Once you have clarified who is progressing further, you take the few selected candidates to the next round which would be a physical meeting where you dive deeper into the role and also the practicalities, towards a job offer.

The second meeting

As the overall goal is to create a win-win situation where you both get a great new person in your team and he or she finds his new role motivating you could use the second interview to evaluate deeper the potential candidates.

Preparing a work task

A way to do this and of course depending on the role that a candidate is applying you could ask him/her to solve a task that is related to the new role. You could choose to do this on the day of the second interview, this might be more appropriate for more experienced candidates. Alternatively, you could send the task in advance and ask him/her to present the results during the second meeting, this is more commonly done for new candidates or candidates with few years of experience. Having a specific task to be solved, that you have tailored for the role, is an excellent way to get further insights into a candidate’s profile.

Workplace visit

The second meeting should be a physical one so that you can better assess the candidate. It might also be a good idea that you can combine this second meeting with also a small walk-around so the candidate can see his/her potential workplace, something that would allow also you to see further his/her behavior.

The job offer

Once you have concluded which candidate you would like to have for the role you can proceed with a job offer. At this stage, you would like still to have a back/up candidate in case your first or second choice does not pan out as you hoped. Sometimes you could also end up back to zero and need to start the process again.

Regardless of what could be the case, take the time needed to find the right candidate. Do not rush this process as you are building up the foundation of your team - its people.