How to interview a prepared candidate with high quality

Socially desirable answers and how to deal with them?

With the advent of search engines like Google, it has become more difficult to recruit employees. Everyone has the opportunity to prepare for the interview. Talking to the finalists, it seems that all candidates have many achievements, are sociable, motivated, "burn" with their brainchild, have not been involved in conflicts, etc. By hiring the seemingly most suitable candidate without interviewing him or her in depth, the company may find itself hiring the wrong person, which can lead to trouble for both parties. Preliminary collection of references is not a guaranteed solution, as the ethics of large companies do not allow you to speak ill of a former employee. And in general, it is very subjective: a person can be a "black sheep" in one team and an "informal leader" in another.

The question arises: how do you "see" a candidate?

There are many technologies that are used both successfully and unsuccessfully.

Here are a few:

CASE-interview or situational interview

This type of interview is based on building hypothetical situations, and the candidate is asked to predict his or her behavior in a particular situation.

It is believed that this method is outdated and of little value to the recruiter, who can only check in this way how well the candidate is prepared, whether he or she is familiar with the basic questions of "what is right and wrong" or "will answer well." Under the influence of stress, being in a similar situation in reality, a candidate may do exactly the opposite of what he or she thinks.

Projective interview

Questions are asked quickly, leaving no time for reflection. The candidate is asked to give several different answers. The first thing a candidate says is an important factor for him or her. However, it's quite difficult to imagine how a Sales Director with significant experience will pass this interview, how they will treat the recruiter, the company, and whether they will accept the job offer.

Stressful interview

It will drive away potential employees who could be useful to the company. The candidate will have a negative experience, be offended, and the company will soon be known as unprofessional.

Competency-based interviews

Competencies are the basic properties of people.

Let's divide them into: surface competencies (based on knowledge and skills), which can be relatively easily developed through training, and deep competencies (based on personality, motives, and psychophysiological characteristics), which are more difficult to assess and develop. It is advisable to choose your employees from among them.

This type of interview is one of the most objective ways to evaluate a candidate. During the interview process, real-life situations that the candidate has faced in the past are considered. Past and present behavior of a person are the best "predictors" of the future behavior of an employee and his or her success in work. The applicant's answers are analyzed and correlated with a particular competency being assessed. The recruiter's attention is focused on studying the candidate's behavior and reactions.

Usually, a competency-based interview is a type of structured interview, as it is based on a pre-designed script that contains a list of competencies and questions that are necessary to obtain information about each competency.

When discussing specific situations, it is necessary to obtain complete information on such blocks:

STAR: Situation - Task - Action - Result.

PARLA: Problem - Action - Result - Learned - Applied

Every person is different, so everyone has a unique perception of different things. We can understand the essence of one competency in different ways and evaluate it in different ways. To unambiguously understand what each competency is, there are indicators of its definition that describe how an employee acts in a given situation. Based on these indicators, we can judge whether an employee has a certain competency or not, and if so, how well it is developed.

Let's say we are testing the competency "Ability to work in a team".

Let's define its indicators and levels. After all, each position requires a different level of competence.

Level 1

• Creates an atmosphere of friendliness and openness around him. He is able to communicate with a large number of acquaintances and strangers.
• He constantly analyzes how his activities can be useful to other team members and informs them about possible cooperation.
• Independently offers cooperative forms of work.

Level 2

• Actively works in a team. Puts the interests of the team above their own. Fully shares the team's goals.
• Creates team spirit in the team. Ready to help colleagues, perform additional work beyond their own functions. Seeks to expand the scope of his/her responsibilities.
• Involves all team members in formulating the team goal. Creates an atmosphere of creativity and initiative in the team. Acts as a mentor to other team members, is an informal leader, and has a well-deserved reputation.

Level 3

• Establishes effective cooperative relations with all departments of the enterprise.
• Establishes the most effective communication rules. Flexibly uses many communication styles.
• Spends time and resources on organizing events aimed at uniting the team and forming it as a single entity.

Next, let's look at what questions different sources propose to ask when defining indicators:

Examples of questions

1. Tell us about a situation in which you participated as a member of a successful team.

What was the result?

What role did you play in the team?

Why did you take on this role?

What difficulties did you face?

How did you overcome them?

2. Give an example of a time when you worked with another person to help achieve the goals of a team.

What was the result?

Who was this person you worked with?

What did you do to help the team?

Why did you decide to help her?

How did you balance your goals with those of the other person?

What difficulties did you face?

How did you overcome them?

3. Tell us about a situation when you found it difficult to develop working relationships with any of your employees.

Describe the situation. What were the problems?

What have you done to try to overcome them?

Why did you use this approach?

What other approaches were possible?

What was the result?

What conclusion did you draw from this situation?

4. Can you give us an example of a situation where cultural differences/differences were taken into account in cooperation with people?

Describe the situation.

What cultural (other) peculiarities did you have to take into account?

What did you do and why?

What was the result of your actions?

What alternative approaches were possible in this situation?

However, I propose to move away from the structured competency-based interview and apply this practice during a biographical interview with questions that lead and clarify. After all, every prepared candidate understands roughly what they want to hear from him or her when these standard questions are asked, and they are prepared for them by outlining several answers in advance.

Accordingly, we will answer the question of how to see a candidate. We will point out ways to reduce socially desirable answers:

Sometimes it is enough just to listen carefully to the candidate and analyze their answers according to the indicators. In the course of his or her story, the candidate may, without realizing it, answer questions that you have prepared in advance but have not yet asked. Each interviewer should prepare them on their own, based on the indicators that the customer identifies, discussing the profile of the desired employee in their team, taking into account the uniqueness of perception. Ask the customer not about competencies, but rather ask them to tell you in a free form whom they are looking for and want to see in their department/department/unit, etc.

Veil the standard questions, they should not contain answers or push the candidate to the "right" answer.

For example, let's look at the first point of the questions we've been asked.

Instead of asking "tell me about a situation in which you participated as a member of a successful team," ask about the last project in which the candidate participated, of course, the candidate will tell about a successful project at the last place of work. Ask clarifying questions.

Replace the question "what role did you play in the team" with questions about the project participants, how many there were, who was responsible for what.

Instead of asking "why did you fulfill this role," ask who distributed responsibilities and why in this way.

"What difficulties did you experience" - apply sales training, according to customer service tactics, get into the candidate's position, note that the project was difficult, judging by his story, he probably learned a lot from solving these difficulties. Then clarify why certain difficulties arose, how he solved them, whether there were other opportunities to resolve the situation, why the candidate chose this particular solution. Act logically, sincerely, and enthusiastically.

The questions should not be taken out of the context of the conversation: each question should flow smoothly from the answer.

The above questions have the same meaning, but are perceived differently because they are based on what has been said. After all, the human brain is designed in such a way that it does not perceive veiled questions in a friendly atmosphere as a defense signal. Accordingly, it is more likely that the candidate will answer sincerely and honestly, being enthusiastic about his or her professional achievements. You may also be able to clarify a few more competencies here.

The interview environment should be comfortable. If a person is tense, feeling "like an interrogator," this can prevent them from "revealing" themselves, making it impossible to fully evaluate the specialist. The ability to establish contact is the most important competence of every recruiter.

It is also important to be pragmatic when evaluating the work experience and competencies of each candidate. You should always keep in mind what value this candidate can bring to the company in the future, what knowledge they have can be useful even if there are no open positions for them now. Stay in touch and give feedback.

High-quality employees are the engine of business.

Knowledge, experience, and developed deep competencies allow employees to achieve their goals, implement ambitious projects, and companies to grow and expand dynamically.