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As recruiters, we have a
natural tendency to go easy on our candidates, especially
during the first screening. We’d prefer to treat them
deferentially, as if they were royalty and we were Barbara
Walters. To avoid confrontation, we ask superficial questions
and accept clichés for answers. Or worse, we simply tune out
the answers we don’t want to hear.
Unfortunately,
there’s a downside to "fluff" interviewing: We end up working
with a lot of poor-quality job seekers who can potentially
wreak havoc on our performance—and our reputation as
recruiters.
Are You
Playing Hardball—or
Softball?
Every time I screen a
candidate, I try to apply a
healthy dose of scrutiny. If the candidate’s free of defects,
great. But if the candidate fails the litmus test, you could
be in for a bumpy ride in the form of a turndown, a falloff or
an accepted counteroffer. By tightening up the initial
screening process, you can save time and avoid a lot of
headaches down the road.
To help you decide whether a
candidate gets the red light or the green light, consider
these four factors:
1. Time
frame. Is the candidate ready to accept a new position
now? If not, file the person away for future use or use the
candidate as a source of new referrals. A typical time frame
question might be, “If I set up an interview next week, and
the company offered you the right job, would you be able to
accept the job, turn in your resignation and start your new
job at the end of this month?”
2. Profile. Does
the candidate possess the skills and work history needed for a
job you’re trying to fill? If so, fine. If not, come back to
the person when his or her skills are in demand.
3.
Motivation. Can the candidate give you a sufficiently good
reason for changing jobs? If not, you may find yourself stuck
with a tire-kicker or recruiter-manipulator. With the
exception of certain circumstances (such as a spousal
relocation or imminent unemployment), people only change jobs
if there’s something they desperately want and can’t get at
their current job, or if there’s something they have at their
current job and can’t deal with.
To find out
if a candidate is money-motivated, remember
this simple rule: The only acceptable reason for changing jobs
for more money is if the increase in pay will materially
change the candidate’s lifestyle or self-identity. If it
won’t, the “more money” candidate should be quarantined and
filed under “MONEY ONLY.”
4. Urgency. A person
may be genuinely motivated to make a job change, but unless
there’s a sense of urgency, you may end up coddling a whiner
or enabling a serial interviewer. Try to discover the tipping
point that pushed the person from “passively disgruntled” to
“locked and loaded.” If you can’t find the urgency, you may be
better off working with someone else.
By asking the
right questions, you can vet your candidates accurately—and
quickly. And by spending more of your time with the winners,
you’ll make your clients happy and your bottom line
healthy. |
© Copyright 2010, BlackDog Recruiting Software Inc.
