Hiring Decisions Deserve More Than a Feeling

When you’re interviewing a potential candidate for a position, what is it that makes you want to hire them? Do you go off of instinct, how friendly they are, how professional they dress for the interview, how they answer the questions, or something else? Many people make hiring decisions based on a feeling, and while gut instinct can help you in many instances, making a hiring decision is not usually one of those times. In fact, many people are great in the interview but don’t turn out to be the kind of employee you expected them to be. That’s why it’s so important to create a system for the hiring process.

When you’re interviewing various candidates, you can get a more accurate idea of how each individual will compare if you ask each candidate the same questions. Your questions can differ slightly depending on their past employment and experience, but the base questions should remain the same. It’s important to take notes while interviewing a person, because it ensures that you will retain pertinent information that could influence your decision later on. It is also helpful to rate the individual on each question using the 5-point Likert scale, with 1 signifying that you strongly dislike or disagree with their answer and 5 being that you strongly like or agree with their answer.

If you have a panel of interviewers, you can collect all of their ratings and add them up to get a clear picture of which candidate is favored the most. This eliminates the need to consider “gut feelings” about certain candidates and objectively measures how they did in the interview. You will always be better off hiring based on specific criteria rather than on instinct. The purpose of bringing in a new employee is for them to fulfill work responsibilities, not for them to be your new best friend.

To streamline the process even further, you can implement pre-hire assessment tools. Once you have narrowed down the candidates to the people you might be interested in speaking with, you can ask them to complete a pre-hire assessment, such as the PXT Select, which measures a person’s cognitive ability, behavioral traits, and motivational interests, or the Step One Survey, which is a survey that measures a person’s basic work-related values. There are several other assessment tools that can help with hiring, onboarding, training, and coaching, and which one you select will depend on what your current needs are. A small cost up front for one of these assessments is significantly less expensive than the cost of hiring the wrong person.

Don’t waste the organization’s time or the individual’s time by hiring someone who is not a good fit for the role. Instead, ensure that you have an effective interviewing process, implement pre-hire assessments when necessary, and hire based on metrics. Then, ensure that you have an onboarding and ongoing training system in place for the new employee. An organization is only as strong as its people. By investing in this process, you are investing in the success of the company. If you’d like to learn more about pre-hire and training assessment tools, reach out to us, and we’d be happy to pass along more information. We’re here to help you attract, develop, and retain top talent.

-Meghan Slaughter