Interviewing | Viatech Global

Should we reevaluate the interview process? Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, initially struggled with interviewing and took time to improve. But not everyone has that luxury. Do we really need multiple interviewers? It can be costly and lead to biased decisions, like rejecting an applicant for an innocuous pronoun. This wastes time and resources, potentially missing out on great hires.

Why does it matter?

In a competitive talent market, finding suitable people is challenging. Attracting and retaining the right talent often takes a backseat. Some companies adopt a “hire anyone available” approach, offering short-term solutions but creating long-term problems. Conversely, companies that prioritize their employees, understand them, and care for them thrive. For example, Patagonia maintains a low attrition rate of 5%, while the US average prior to the pandemic was 42%, recently rising to 47.2%. Surprisingly, 33% of surveyed employees quit within the first 90 days.

A survey in 2018 found that nearly 500 individuals quit within three months of starting a new job. About half of them cited a mismatch between the job and their interview expectations.

Our aim is to help companies make better hiring decisions. In one case, a client requested an evaluation of a candidate for a specific role. We found the candidate adequate but not exceptional. After a few months, the client expressed dissatisfaction with the employee’s performance. Upon investigation, we discovered a discrepancy between the client’s requirements and the actual needs due to a poorly defined job description. We offered to mediate with the employee, and it became clear that the employee was unaware of the job expectations. Eventually, the employee chose to quit upon realizing the misalignment. This situation raises the question of why the employee was unaware of the expectations.

The hiring process should focus on specifying talent requirements and assessing fit. Specifying talent is straightforward and can be easily validated. Fit assessment is more challenging and often leads to hiring failures. Relying solely on interviews, a subjective process, for fit assessment is inadequate.

Resumes help assess education, skills, and experience, but applicants often exaggerate or lie to some extent. Fit assessment is where the process often breaks down. An impressive resume may mislead and lead to biased decisions.

So, what can we do?

Using validated assessments is a step in the right direction. Choosing appropriate assessments and interpreting them correctly is crucial. Clear job descriptions that outline expectations and success metrics are essential. Creating benchmarks to measure candidates against is important but requires effort. This approach makes the process faster and more accurate.

Data plays a crucial role. Gathering relevant data before interviews and objectively prioritizing the best candidate can significantly improve outcomes. Save the interview for the final stage, eliminating the need for a screening interview. Reserve it for your best interviewer, focusing on talent and fit. Building effective teams relies on talent, fit, analysis, and training.

All of the above is encompassed in HireSense. Screening for fit saves time, reduces costs, and yields better results. It requires attention to detail.

How about a no-risk, no-cost option to give it a try? Schedule a short demo at https://calendly.com/michael-579/60min

Many supply chain industries have seen a significant demand to keep their shelves full and shipments moving. How can you do that without the right people? Many are just filling an open space, but what if you could do more and ensure that the quick fix is also a long-term gain.

Are you part of a supply company that has been forced to hire a lot of new employees to meet the emergency demands of our present economy? Despite your efforts, are you finding it hard to stay ahead of the demand and conduct the essential screening interviews to ensure you get the best workers? For many, the increase of hire is for an entry-level position, so the fast hire and quick fix seems to be the way to cope.

As an assessment supplier with 25 years’ experience, I lean towards assessing as a screening tool. Why interview someone you have no intention of hiring? It seems, in my experience, a lot of companies rely on a screening interview to assess the next steps before they pass on for further evaluation or rejection. Interviewing takes a significant level of experience and talent that not many of us are trained to do or excel at. Couple this with the 300+ biases of the human brain and there is the significant possibility that some good candidates don’t make the cut and some that should never have been considered do. This is costly for everyone.

Our working clients have found that a focus on judgment can pare down the pool of applicants to the top potentials you really want to spend your time evaluating. This saves time, money, and leads to hiring employees with excellent performance potential. Our judgment assessment is not a self-report screen, making it virtually impossible to game. The assessment is objective because it requires the potential hire to process information and come to a conclusion in a short period.

In this pandemic world, you need the ability to act fast and hire quickly, but at the same time limit the possibility of making bad hires and to know what your applicant will be like after the interview. The cost of an assessment screening is easily offset by not having to do a screening interview. It is that simple and it is more reliable.

Keep in mind we are reacting to the current situation, trying to provide the best solution for the immediate need. Hiring for high-performance team members well suited for the job, the culture, and management style is a different challenge, but should not be lost in the moment.

Find out how you can reduce some of your risk of hiring by using our judgment screen as a part of your process. Gain insight in ready time that will improve your long term outcome.

Let us show you a path to bettering hiring practices at a lower cost. Find a time to talk https://www.timetrade.com/book/BLVWM

Ever go to a social event and meet a person who just would not stop talking about themselves? You ask a friend about their vacation and before they get two sentences out this other person interrupts with their story of visiting that same place. Every time your friend tries to continue, the other guy interrupts with a bigger, better adventure. Or after asking you what you do for a living he goes on and on about his accomplishments with no prompting inquiry from you. Dominating the conversation, you’re stuck standing there nodding your head and mumbling “uh-huh” over and over. Bored to tears, you’re trying to figure out how to escape.

Does that person resemble you? In networking environments there is always the pressure to get your message out, but is that effective? Only if by chance you randomly hit exactly on a pain point of the person you are conversing with. Otherwise you’ve been saddled with the description of a boor and have incentivized them to get away from you quickly. I’ve experienced that and been guilty of it.

As a very talkative person with strong convictions I must be very aware when I am dominating the conversation in not necessarily a good way. What I do now is ask questions; find out about them, their family, how long in the area, who do they work for, what is their position/department, use questions to show their potential as a prospect or influencer. I’m looking for the potential of them being interested in what I have to offer.

Usually, once they have slowed down, they get around to asking me about me. Hopefully I’ve discovered enough to customize my delivery in a way that relates to something I’ve learned during my questioning phase. My goal is to use a related story about something we have done that relates to them. Once the conversation gets around to me, I usually dominate it. I’ll quite often get “Wow, I’ve experienced that same thing,” that opens additional conversation about potential solutions and away we go.

How do you handle networking conversations? What techniques have you found helpful?

The workplace is a changed environment and we understand the challenges faced by organizations as a result of these changes. We’re no longer in a “climb the corporate ladder” environment; employees are ready for positions to open – and not at your organization. They understand the value of change and so should you. At Viatech Global we’re helping employers identify, engage and retain the right employees. We’re also helping resolve workplace issues among employees through our value science tools. Many employers are seeking cost-effective ways to re-build employee engagement.

We offer the following five reasons it will benefit the bottom line to work with us:

1. Build and retain strong teams: Through our series of value science tools we are able to identify the key players of the organization. They may be different than who you perceive your leaders to be and that’s okay. We will help you create and re-create engaged teams who stay with your organization when others may leave.

2. Cost effective employee training: One of our greatest assets is that we want to train your trainers on how to effectively utilize value science tools to create teams that are engaged and productive. We provide a variety of resources and certification through our certification program, ongoing classes, workshop materials and more. Viatech University

3. Value Science Tools: Our suite of assessments provides an in-depth view of employees’ strengths, behaviors and values. Not only will they learn about themselves through the process, your management team will learn how to effectively utilize employees.

4. Cost savings and increased productivity: Review our case studies to see for yourself how our consulting services and programs help increase productivity and decrease costs at an array of organizations. Our client Memorial Hermann demonstrated approximately $42 million in annualized savings in their system of 27,000 employees. https://www.viatechglobal.com/praise/success-stories/

5. FREE Assessment: You can’t beat FREE! Please visit our website, fill out the information on Viatech Global Free Assessment to receive a complimentary assessment and evaluation.

We value your time and desire to have you make an informed decision about working with us.

Please contact us for additional information and resources via phone at 505-765-9903 or 800-494-5218, via email at info@viatechglobal.com.