BrainTrust Query: Dramatically Improve Your Interviewing Process
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from Retail Contrarian, the blog of Dynamic Experiences Group.
The other day, I noticed that a manager was interviewing a job applicant on a bench in front of her store in a local mall. Since I'm never one to miss the chance to watch and learn, I decided to hang out and see what I could take away from the interview.
I can sum up the entire interview in one word. Boring! The interviewer was boring. The applicant was boring. I think they were boring each other. At the end of the interview, the only thing the manager learned was what was already on the application, and all the applicant said was the same stock answers everyone says in an interview, including the all important, "I'm a people person." My day was complete.
Interviewing and candidate selection is just too important to not do extremely well. A great hire can have an almost immediate positive impact on the store, and a bad hire can lead to 60, 90, or more days of pure hell.
Here are ways to dramatically improve the interviewing and hiring process:
- Spend part of the interview working together on the floor. Instead of asking the applicant to tell you about her customer service and selling skills, have her show you with real customers. Sure, she won't have a lot of product knowledge. Sure, she'll be nervous. But I'll tell you what -- you'll quickly separate the winners from the fakers. At the very least, do some selling scenario role-playing with a candidate.
- Have him observe the staff and share his insights with you. You'll be surprised how many people who say they're good at sales and service can't define it even when they see it.
- Require the applicant to interview you. You can learn a lot about a person by the questions he/she asks. Is he interested in the challenges and opportunities, or how the lunch breaks work? Is she interested in hearing why you're a great company to work for, or is she already thinking about vacations?
- Have the applicant spend time with non-management team members. If he/she is good, we want to do everything we can to get our offer accepted. One of the best ways to do that is to have the candidate bond with one or two of your best non-management employees. It's one thing for you to say how wonderful your store/company is, but it's another when that message comes from a potential colleague.