In the final chapter of this book, I'm going to show you how to reach that all important hiring decision. You have your score sheets from the interviews filled out with individual skill scores, which are factored according to the importance of that skill, and you have a total score for each candidate. The scores will be used to rank the candidates; the highest score will be ranked first, then second, and so on. It is not likely that you will find a candidate with the maximum score.
Do you think it likely that each interviewer recorded the same score for each candidate?
Life isn't like that, unfortunately. You need to discuss, agree on a common score, and then make a joint decision.
I'll share some tips from my experience that will make this process easier.
In this chapter, you will learn:
- How to review your own candidates' skill scores
- How to set minimum acceptable skill scores
- How to reach an agreement on the candidates' ranking
- How to make a shortlist
- How to get supporting evidence of the candidates' claims
- How to manage, decide, and make special adjustments to scores
After the steady build up in the previous chapters to the summit of the Interview Simulatitor, you can think of this chapter as a plateau; an opportunity to consolidate everything and learn how to pick the best candidates. The experience and learning you received from previous chapters are important, but the really valuable output of the interview is your decision. Luckily for you, the evaluation process outlined in this chapter is done post-interview and is far less stressful.
You will need to understand your own and the other interviewers' observations, but you haven't got the stress of running the interview to schedule, observing the candidates posturing cues, and questioning.
Remember, making the right hiring decision is vitally important to your career. Your first hire will carry your approval and be an example of your vision for your team. The performance of your team is your responsibility and is a measure of your performance as a manager. A good leader builds a great team. Now we need to make sure the information you have gathered throughout the interview process is used to hire the right person for the job.
Inexperienced interviewers have trouble with the calibration of their scoring. It is important you remember that you are making a comparative judgment, not an absolute one. The score sheet you are using will usually weight some skills more heavily than others: they are more important to the job performance. It is perfectly acceptable to choose a high scoring candidate overall who has a low scoring relatively minor skill.
You may remember in the Interview Simulator that I recommended mid-range scores particularly for the first candidate. You needed to avoid scoring a 10 when the next candidate might be even better! You need substantially justified reasons to score in the extremes. This will come with experience of interviewing. You just have to leave yourself some room to score above or below.
In this section, you will learn how to:
- Tap into your intuition regarding the scores
- Understand why your intuition is grumbling
- Review your scores
- Take your grumbling intuition and share it
Throughout this learning journey, we have discovered facts, observed other people, judged them, and come to a score. Now we have to weigh your intuitive insight.
Hopefully you have had a good night's sleep between the final interview and your discussion about which candidates to place on the shortlist.
You have your scores nicely tabulated, but you don't like the resulting ranking. Something doesn't quite look right.
Instinct, intuition, or gut feelings are not to be ignored. If nothing else, you need to be confident the scores are correct. You don't want to hire someone and always be waiting for the dreaded day when they prove your negative feelings were correct. You want to be positive about the decision you make.
You will need to think about the individual candidates' skill scores and confirm they are your best judgment. Do this for each candidate and for each skill. There is a process for amending your scores, and this follows when you understand why your intuition is unsettled.
You may feel you have been more or less generous in the score you have awarded a candidate. This is not the time to adjust the scores to get the result you want. Be fair with any adjustments to the scores. If you find yourself adjusting an individual score by more than plus or minus one, you are probably not being fair.
Do not adjust the scores to achieve the candidate ranking you feel is right. Review each of the skill scores fairly, using the same measure. A score must mean the same for every candidate; a score of 7 is the same across all the candidates.
Unfortunately, it is often the case that despite the small adjustments you made to the individual scores, your intuition leads you to still have doubts about the ranking of some candidates.
Think about the candidate that seems to have the wrong ranking. This could be affecting three candidates or more, the troublesome ranked candidate and the immediate neighbors.
Is there anything that stands out as different between these candidates that may not have been captured in the interview process? What is your intuition restless about? You will know when you have resolved the aberration—your intuition will respond by relaxing the physical effects you feel.
Let's work through an example. You have two candidates with total scores just one point apart. The higher scoring candidate has a lot of experience in one of the skills needed and is extremely confident, so confident in fact that the candidate actually said they know all there is to know about the subject! The lower scoring candidate had some relevant experience and scored very highly, but admitted they could always learn more and be better.
If your intuition is grumbling, there were probably other different instances of "I know it all" in the interview that may have led to good scores.
An interview is a snapshot taken in time. The job the successful candidate will do will go on week after week, month after month, and will develop in ways not entirely predictable. Is your intuition telling you to score the candidate who is more willing to learn more highly?
Did you find the reason behind each ranking "error" you are concerned about?
I would expect you to find the reason most of the time. Make a note of your doubts and the reasons for them ready for the next stage.