Recruiter’s confession: A few meetings can explain about a candidate’s skills and competency

September 20, 2017

Here is much talk about a job seeker’s aspirations from work, organisation and the interview that he may face. However, the task for people on the other end of the table is equally daunting. Talk to a recruiter and interesting pegs will start flowing. Here is one such experience.

Here we have Srividya Kannan, Founder & Director, Avaali Solutions Pvt Ltd. share an interview experience where she was explaining how a few meetings can explain about the candidate’s experiences, skills and competency ….. Read till the end.

Recruitment is one of the most interesting part of my job. Almost every other day, I’m fortunate to meet different people with varied background and experiences. Several have been really learning moments for me personally, and these experiences have personally enriched me.

One of the most important learnings has been that while a few meetings and discussions can explain about the candidate’s experiences, skills and competency, what is not really apparent is their core values and how that ties back to the recruiting company’s core values and culture.

End of the day, a company culture is made up of the value systems of employees, and every new hire is likely to further strengthen or erode that culture. Employees with value systems aligned to that of the enterprise, also have higher engagement levels and more commitment to achieving the objectives of the organisation. I learnt is that in addition to questions that assess a candidate’s ability to deliver the job, it is equally important to ask questions on their values and behavior. There could also be instances where candidates are not very transparent or true to explicitly calling out the values that they truly care for. I learnt that one of the ways to get around this is to ask several situational judgement questions to assess consistency in their response to similar situations. Some recruiters have psychometric tests that help discover someone’s personality and values. For small enterprises, this could perhaps be expensive and would therefore require manual iteration over a few meetings to assess consistency. Again, hiring is about needs and not likes. Managers typically tend to gravitate towards people who think like them without considering what work style is really required of the job / open position. Innovation and growth can only happen in a more diverse environment where different employee types work together to bring in new ideas.

Hiring people who contribute positively to the work culture helps build a great work environment, and support in building a great brand. Even one negative or pessimistic person can cause great harm as they find a reason to complain and cause a toxic work environment. The aspect of values and behaviors requires more attention than it perhaps gets during the interview cycle to protect and grow the brand and performance for any enterprise.