Conduct a Productive Job Interview

Ask human resources experts to assess your talents in interviewing job candidates and their verdicts blister. “Interviews are notoriously poor predictors of success on the job because most people do them so badly,” says Pat Lynch, a principal at Long Beach, Calif., consulting firm HR Value. Job candidates usually are nervous and managers conduct interviews too infrequently to get good at them, so the result is that a lot of hires are based on gut instincts that may not pan out.

There is a better way. Human resources professionals insist that the manager who approaches interviewing systematically, and with a commitment to doing it right, will improve. In five steps, you can learn from experts how best to assess candidates who come knocking at your door.

Step 1: Re-think the process. “An interview isn’t an opportunity to ‘visit’ with the person. But too many managers approach it as though it is,” says Linda Henman, a human resources consultant based in Chesterfield, Mo. It is an opportunity, she says, to assess how the person sitting across from you might add value to your company.

Step 2: Visualize your ideal hire. Go into interviews with a clear picture in mind of the person you want to hire—how much experience he or she has, his or her pay, his or her skills. If you don’t know what you are looking for, you won’t find it, according to experts. “Start with the end in mind,” advises Leif H. Smith, president of Personal Best Consulting in Hilliard, Ohio. “Figure out what behaviors are associated with your most productive employees”—and use the interview to determine how this candidate matches up against the behaviors that are proven to get results for you.

Step 3: Shut up. That is respectful advice from the experts. “A big mistake is that too many interviewers talk too much,” says Greta Cairns, executive vice president of human capital at SCI Companies, a Tampa, Fla.-based provider of outsourced human relations services. Cairns has found that the biggest mistake for most managers is they don’t listen. “If you are talking more than 30 percent of the time, you are talking too much,” she says.

What do you do with candidates who swiftly answer questions with a “yes” or a “no”? Cairns says to ask questions that cannot be answered that way. Don’t ask, “Are you comfortable handling an angry customer?” Ask, “When you last ran into an angry customer, what did you do?” Open-ended questions get people talking.

Step 4: Keep the playing field level. “Use a structured interview format,” says Lynch, who urges that the interview follow a set list of questions that are asked of every candidate. “This will let you compare candidates on a level playing field,” she says.

Wellesley, Mass., labor lawyer and HR expert John W. Roslansky gets more specific about what to ask. “Use behavioral interviewing questions,” he says. “Ask your candidates to tell you stories of specific problems they have fixed and ask them how they did the work.” For instance: The last time an auger did not unclog the toilet, what did you do? Such questions do not necessarily have right or wrong answers, but in responding, the candidate will reveal how he or she thinks about common tasks as well as how much skill the candidate possesses.

Lynch suggests that a short interview could be combined with a live test of skills—say, a jammed garbage disposal. How long does the job applicant take to diagnose the problem? How swiftly can he make the repairs? With some jobs, actually doing the tasks is easier than describing what to do. Don’t be shy about introducing live problems, and take extensive notes as you observe how the candidate goes about the work. Try to look not just with a boss’s eyes, but with a customer’s, too.

Step 5: Don’t rush the process. A final piece of advice is to be patient, according to Scott Cawood, a New York-based organizational development expert and co-author of Destination Profit: Creating People-Profit Opportunities in Your Organization. Don’t be shy about involving other employees in the interview process. Sit the candidate who is scoring highest down for a 10-minute talk with a master plumber with whom he might be paired on the job—and heed the feedback from your current employee. He or she might have sharper insights into how prospective hires will fit into the company, Cawood says.