Hiring is a lot of work — conducting an interview for each candidate, then selecting an eventual placement for an open job role – it can be tough. But even when you feel like the interview process has gone really well, you can end up with a new hire that’s not quite right for the company. Some of the reasons for this involve the ways that people interview candidates for jobs, and hiring processes that rely more on what’s comfortable than on what’s effective.

Here are some ways to make sure that you won’t have ‘buyer’s regret’ when you successfully choose a candidate based on interview.

Evaluate and Temper Your Enthusiasm

Many of us have been in an interview where enthusiasm takes over. These really are great interviews — they feel very good for the candidate, and the employer’s representatives, as well. Everybody gets really excited about the possibilities. But the hiring people might get so excited that they forget to really thoroughly vet the candidate in the technical ways that protect the company from liability in harm. Even when you have a great ‘gut feeling’ about somebody, go ahead and do the extra work — it can save you a lot of pain and heartache later.

Understand Your Blind Spots

For an individual hiring manager, it’s important to be reflective and look inside yourself to figure out why you might be blind to some potential problems at interview. Do you rely more on how friendly a person is than on their qualifications and experience? Do you tend to make snap judgments about a person based on their resume? When you look and evaluate these things, you can more easily craft an interview style to make it really effective, and catch any small indications of big problems later.

Take a Group Approach

Building from the point above, it’s a good process to include more than one person at a given interview. Multiple people can catch issues that a single person might not. That’s why a lot of the smartest companies now have a board of people involved in all interviews. They don’t just put one HR person or manager in a room with a candidate — because there are far too many ways than the interview can go really well, without actually being effective.

Listen…and Take Notes

Another major problem is where hiring people do all the talking in an interview. Yes, you want to explain what you do to the candidate. You want to give them as much orientation as possible. But when this takes center stage, you’re dangerously avoiding the process of getting the information that you need to make decisions.

In education, there something called the Socratic method. It states that the presenter should be talking less than 30% of the time, and that the student should be talking at least 70% of the time. Don’t be afraid to apply this to your interviews. Ask questions, and sit back and listen. Understand what the other person is saying, and use that as a basis to evaluate whether they would be good for the job in the long run.

For more on the challenges of hiring, keep reading our Full Steam Staffing blog. We provide great consulting and staffing services for businesses in Ontario, California area. On our blog, we try to help show how we assist our client companies in promoting value and excellence every day.

About Full Steam Staffing

Full Steam Staffing is a full-service staffing agency focused on providing clerical and light industrial staffing solutions to manufacturers, distribution centers and other organizations that need qualified, reliable workers. If you are currently looking to hire and grow your workforce, contact our team of skilled recruiters today!