This week we were asked to interview someone who is responsible for hiring employees. Additionally, this person must work outside of healthcare. For privacy reasons, I will tell you this person works for a very large and popular retail company. He works at the regional level and conducts many interviews. As a team formed in our class, we devised a list of 12 questions to ask in order to better understand the hiring process.
1. Describe your specific hiring process. Typically how long does this process take place from start to finish?
The company posts both internally and externally. The length of time is dependent on the position. It takes anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months for the entire process from posting to hiring. The posting may last between 3-7 days. He reviews applications, checks references and then interviews take place.
2. Who is involved in the hiring decision making process and how do you come to a consensus?
Typically there is one hiring manager but HR protocol never encourages one person to be in charge for the whole time. If someone claims discrimination you have to have a witness with you at all times to dispute their claims. There is always somewhat of a panel dependent on a position. First may be a phone interview, then in person, then final approval with a supervisor meeting with the candidate. Typically there are three rounds of interviews.
3. What are some of the main factors that contribute to employee resignation or termination?
During exit interviews most of the time the issue that people talk about as being a problem is scheduling. It typically comes down to work/life balance or the days that they are scheduled.
Do you consider these factors when hiring new employees?
The hiring managers look specifically to talk about what employee’s expectations are. However, they need to be available when there is a need. Unfortunately, with retail, it is necessary to work weekends and holidays and that is a problem, even if they are aware of it during the hiring process.
4. How much do you consider a person’s age in the hiring process?
Zero, the only time age is considered is if they are too young. 15 is too young to hire. We focus only on capabilities. It doesn't matter if there are two candidates, one being close to retirement and another younger, age is not consider at all.
5. Skype and phone interviews are becoming more popular. Are those a part of your hiring process and if so, what challenges does this bring to the process?
They are part of hiring for positions that are above store level. Market level, District level. It works out fine for those positions. Obviously there are certain things you can’t appreciate when in person. You can’t tell mannerisms. It is really hard to tell how prepared the person is you are interviewing. Anyone can have notes in front of them. But for the most part it works out great.
6. Does an employer prefer to hire within the company or do they like to bring in new perspectives?
They prefer both. It is hard to say if they like the one over the other. They are just looking for top talent no matter what. The one thing that has been nice about this company is that they do like to promote from within. They don’t require a degree to be a store manager. 75% of store managers started out as cashiers and other positions within the store. There are plenty of opportunities to move up.
7. What special preparation do you take before you interview a prospective employee?
He always reviews the resume and application looking for specific experience, gaps in employment. Looking for gaps gives him time to prepare the questions he would ask like why they were not working, etc. Personal goals and interests are back burner but it helps you to prepare for questions.
8. What “red flags” do you see during an interview that make you question the integrity of the interviewee?
It really depends upon the interview. In the interview they are trying to sell themselves. Sometimes they embellish more than they should. He looks for how they describe accomplishments and then he can ask what they contributed to those accomplishments versus what their team did. Sometimes they take credit for things that they might not have done all by themselves.
9. How do you put yourself in your prospective employee’s ‘shoes’ to make the most out of the interview process?
He tries to imagine what they would have gone through because it helps him ask questions. Most of the time you are talking retail. He is just trying to look at their experience and find better questions to ask. Really you are just trying to learn if this person is going to be able to do the job. Story telling is a good answer for behavioral questions. See what they have done and see if the questions are the most relevant. If they don’t have the experience he doesn't ask questions that are not pertinent. The focus is on the job description and functions of the job.
10. What makes an interviewee stand out among a pool of other applicants?
The first thing he is always looking for is confidence. He us looking to see if they can express themselves with the knowledge of the job skills that are on the resume. He is looking to see if what they say on paper matches the things they are saying to him. Sometimes the resume is well written but they can’t explain things. The focus is on knowledge, skills and abilities.
11. What is the most difficult part of interviewing prospective candidates?
Evaluating them. It is pretty easy to ask questions. Sometimes people don’t interview really well and they are boring. When you are evaluating a person like that you are just not very focused. Sometimes people are very short in their answers and not very descriptive. The best ones are the ones that you want to ask more questions because you want to know more about them. How can you compare ones that meet expectations and those that don’t. It is the ones that meet all the criteria. They are successful in the methodology that they use.
People think that going into the interview that everything is predetermined. His experience is that it has never been predetermined. He just wants to follow the procedures that Human Resources has taught. Sometimes the one that you expect to be promoted turns out to not to be the best. Typically the only requirement is that you have more than one applicant. If you don't have more than one, you close the posting and post the position again. You do this even if they are really really good. Because, what is on paper with an applicant is not always what is best. If you start to interview them and they are the only one and you don’t want them, you have to hire them. It may be that you look on social media sites like Facebook and find something about them that is undesirable. It is too late, if they were the only one that applied and you interviewed them, you would have to hire them.
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