Hi
,
Some years ago, when I was working for a high street recruitment agency called Blue Arrow, I was recruiting for a client in an IT company.
During our conversations, she confided in me that she hadn’t recruited in several years and was feeling a little unsure about how to
structure the interview process.
She asked if I could prepare a list of questions to ask the interviewees, which I was more than happy to do.
Now, the client was interviewing three of my candidates and six candidates from two other agencies.
So I offered to interview with her to show her first-hand how it should be structured, what questions to ask, and how to interpret body language.
And if I am perfectly honest with you here, my plan was also to gently guide her to take on one of my candidates, who, on paper, was head and shoulders above all the other potential applicants.
My tip-top candidate had all the IT qualifications the company was looking for and more.
He was experienced, well-educated, very dedicated and had a wealth of relevant experience.
Additionally, he was also
desperate for a new job, as he had just been made redundant and had recently taken out a substantial mortgage on a new property.
What could possibly go wrong?
I had organised for my top-drawer candidate to go last and structured the interview questions in such a way that would be favourable for
him.
By focusing on the length of experience of each of the interviewees, I knew the comparison would work in his favour.
None of the others could match his track record — it should have been a simple slam dunk, or so I thought.
The first five candidates were all excellent, so this wasn't going to be as straightforward as I had initially anticipated.
The receptionist brought my candidate into the interview room, where the client and I were sitting.
To my shock and horror, this chap
swaggered in wearing mirrored sunglasses.
To add insult to injury, the time was 8.30 pm, not a good look.
I said to him, Hi Peter, thanks for coming in on time and waiting so patiently.
Just
before we get started, is there something wrong with your eyes?
He said no. Why do you ask?
Well, you are still wearing your sunglasses! (Hint, hint!)
And, what's that to do with you?
Trying to keep my composure, it is a bit intimidating interviewing with you wearing those mirrored sunglasses.
To add insult to injury, he said Well, that's the way it is! Now I could see my placement fee going up in the ether.
This interview was not going as I had planned, and to make matters worse, my client was giving me daggers as I had just told her that this chap was the best thing since sliced bread.
Plans of mice and men!
At this point, I am thinking to myself, how on earth am I going to turn
this round so that I can try and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat?
Then I had a lightbulb moment.
I said to the candidate, 'I'm afraid, seeing as you're not prepared to remove your sunglasses, I have no choice but to terminate the interview, and I escorted him back to the
reception.'
I later found out that he was sporting a black eye, apparently inflicted by his wife.
I apologised profusely to the client and then, agonisingly, had to choose one of my competitor's candidates — even though I had two of my own in the frame whom I could have nudged her
towards.
My lightbulb idea was to sing the virtues of the other agency's candidate at the same time, highlighting my ability to remain unbiased and focused on selecting the very best person for the company.
My real aim, of course, was to secure a deeper role in their full recruitment
process.
And the plan worked like a dream.
The client asked me to sit in on all her interviews, which gave me a much better understanding of what she was looking for in a candidate.
That insight gave me a clear head start over
the other agencies.
To make sure I was never in that embarrassing position again, I created an "Interview Tips and Techniques" guide for every candidate I sent to interview.
The result? A fourfold increase in my agency's placement ratio.
As a business owner, it is your responsibility to prepare every person you send to an interview thoroughly.
By not doing so, you are doing a disservice to your candidates, your clients, and, of course, your bottom line.
If you would like a free
copy of my 'Interview Tips and Technique' guideline document, which I have used over the years to help increase my new start ups' interview-to-placement ratio, please send an email to support@recruitmentstartup.net.
These guidelines in no way guarantee that every person you send for an interview will be offered a job.
Still, if you take the time to prepare every person for their interview, your candidates will come off more confident and capable, your clients will be happier with the calibre of people you are sending to them, and you will close more deals.
