How many times have you lost your best candidate in the recruitment process? One of our clients shared an experience with us the other day as they had recruited an Engineering Manager.. 10 minutes before he was due to start on his first day he made the phone call.  No doubt there had been a significant investment of time and effort in recruitment.

Here's some suggestions which may help you avoid that happening to you:

Why is this important and beneficial to you?

You can save and reduce your recruitment (and induction prep.) time &  costs  

Avoids missed opportunities in your business if everything goes to schedule

Allows you to avoid compromising ( "top gun" candidate is not always best fit)

Allows you to get on with all those other HR/Operations things you have to do

Avoids the stress and frustration of doing all those interviews AGAIN!

What is the WOBBLY LADDER process? The briefing stage:

- The briefing or specification for the role is the foundation for the whole exercise, if this stage is skipped or neglected then you may not lock in or agree with other managers the exact sort of candidate profile you need and also not develop a  decent job specification document and "sales pitch" to hook those strong candidates with. You'd be amazed at what a difference a really well laid out and colourful job spec does to candidate's interest!

- You'll find yourself not being able to shortlist resumes very easily because your selection criteria is too narrow or wide or just not decidedly clear

- You'll find yourself interviewing more candidates than you should have to

- You will most likely do most of the talking in the interviews as you haven't prepared a decent job, company description.

The next stages are really the beginning of candidate motivational screening which continues to the end of the process. . . . . NEVER EVER assume that the candidate is still keen on the role and has no other option".  Effective screening is a fine balance between "wooing" the good candidates and pushing everyone for honest and well considered answers.

Initial telephone screening ... take good notes as you'll need to refer to them in face to face interview:

(As the process goes on, the position of power in the negotiations moves to the candidate so use this stage wisely. Perhaps even verbally walk away and ask the candidate to call you back if they are still interested in a few days. Advise them that they will have to then convince you they really want the job)

- What was your base salary (clearly separate from package), only 8% super, any bonuses or car? Any other benefits, share plans etc.  When is your next review? (If you think the package seems too high then ask them what they earned in the jobs before).

- Why are you looking? or why did you leave that role? (go through as many roles in reverse chronological order as you think fit and don't be afraid to push the point if there seems to be a theme developing - perhaps they always fallout or blame their boss) Don't just take a vague "made redundant" as an answer, ask how many other went at the same time and qualify that they can provide references to substantiate this.

- Where do you live.......do you have a car.....how do you think you will get to work....that's a long way to commute isn't it?  What will "any" family (don't know if they have any sometimes but this question usually flushes it out) think if you adding three hours onto your working day? 

- Have you worked shift work before?  Have you cleared this with "any" family yet?

- Why do you want to move into production?  Most of your career has been in engineering, won't you lose that focus on your CV if you take this on? (same can apply to other areas of specialisation)

- What will your boss think when and if you resign?  What will you do if your boss offers you more money to stay? (again take very detailed notes as you may need to hold the candidate's feet to the ground later if they start to "wobble" on you)

In the face to face interview

you can actually go through all of the same questions if you feel it's appropriate.  DO NOT just use competency based questions as the motivational screening "eye to eye" is irreplaceable as an interview warm up (if the candidate is obviously not a "fit" motivationally, then you can also skip competencies in part or all and save time).  If we haven't already emailed the job brief to the candidate we will generally let them read a copy for a good 15 minutes before the interview so that they can get any burning questions off their minds before focusing properly. This will also give you an idea of decision making style, eg Engineering Managers typically love to ask lots of questions, where as Production Managers & Supervisors tend to be less detailed.  

You are obviously comparing your telephone screening notes to everything that is said in the interview and picking up on any differences.

Here is a sample of the sort of motivational/warm up questions we use to double check we are on track (we obviously challenge the candidate on any misfits or variances or conflicting comments eg preferred job role does not match their wide variety of job applications):

- Any particular preference on type of role and industry?

- What attracted you to this role or advertisement?

- Prefer large or small companies?

- Any thing you have particularly disliked in previous roles that you never want again?

- Any thing you have particularly liked in previous roles that you see as a must have?

- How ambitious are you?  Where do you want to realistically be in 5 years?

- What would you do in your career if you knew you couldn't fail at what ever you put your hand to?

- Applied for any other positions recently? How are they going? How do you rank them all with this role? 

As recruiters we also have the luxury of asking the candidates how the interview went with our client as a third party and sounding board:..........some example questions are:

- Any reason you didn't ring me earlier on how the interview went? (we have already asked them to when setting up the interview) How did the interview go?

- How long were you there?

- How do you feel it went overall?

- Were there any areas which they were concerned about or pushed you on?