We’ve talked in prior articles about the importance of consistently living company values through clearly defined behaviors and why this is important. Today’s article is HOW TO select people who fit the values you have defined for your company.

Later in this article we have a product recommendation for you that makes the hiring process simpler and more effective. This product is directed towards the hospital and healthcare industries yet the principles discussed next can be applied to any company. 

Are you still using ineffective interview techniques that don’t deliver the best results?

Hiring A players is one of the most critical aspects of building an intentional culture yet many companies still use ineffective interview techniques that don’t deliver the best results.  Hiring by gut feel might work some of the time but not consistently enough to risk your customer and patient satisfaction on. If you’re going to find A players for your organization, you will have to dig deeper than what a candidate might want to tell you in order to find the information you need to make the best hiring decisions. We have found five techniques that when used together vastly improve your interviewing and hiring results as proven by changes in our clients patient satisfaction scores.

Behavioral Based Interviewing.

This technique is not new it was created and effectively used during world war ll.  This method of interviewing seeks to find actual examples in a candidates past of behavior that models what we’re looking for. The axiom “Past behavior predicts future behavior” is true and by asking detailed questions how a candidate behaved in the past we can predict how they will act in the future.   Compare these two interview questions.

1. Are you able to handle very busy periods of high customer demand?

2. Tell me about a time you had a very busy period of high customer demand. What did you do and what was the outcome?

See the difference? One requires only a yes answer and if you’re lucky the candidate might provide some theoretical situational examples. Question two looks for actual demonstrated behavior. Behavioral based questions are a key component to successful hiring.

Values based interviewing.

Yes you can find qualified candidates who match your company culture but only if you ask questions geared towards revealing those traits.  Are you looking for someone who has integrity, then ask questions that reveal this as a past behavior. Example question “Tell me about a time when you did what you know to be right regardless of the consequence”. This question looks for both past behavior and values in the response.

Validated Interview Questions.

Are you wasting time asking questions that are unrelated to the job at hand? Do you know which job attributes are most important? A validated interview question simply means you’ve taken the time to ask current job incumbents what skills and qualities matter most in performing their job. For example, analytical reasoning skills may not be as important to a waiter/waitress as they are to a lab technician.  When you have a consistent list of candidate desired attributes for each position then you can structure questions around that list. This also allows multiple interviewers to ask related questions from different points of view and to compare notes after the interview is completed.

Peer Interviewing.

Peer interviewing consists of hiring teams such as a manager, a peer, and a representative from HR. Peers are not only involved in the interview process but also participate in making the hiring decision.  When all members of this team are using structured questions designed to find not only technical competency but match to company values and focused on the key attributes of the position you will experience much better hiring results.  Precaution; avoid legal issues by making sure your peers are familiar with which questions they can and can’t ask.  Important, only use A players on the peer interviewing team, they are the ones who are living the company values whereas C players tend to hire other C players.

 Using prepared interview guides.

An interview guide is a printed multipage document with interviewer tips, prepared questions, and space for writing notes. Not only does an interview guide help the flow and timing of an interview, but it also helps to organize one’s thoughts afterwards and aids in candidate comparison as well as the overall perceived fairness of the process.

In Summary: The recipe for a powerful change to your candidate selection results is:

1. Using Behavioral Based Interviewing Questions.
2. Using peers who are also A players.
3. Including values based questions.
4. Using validated attributes for each position.
5. Using prepared interview guides

Wouldn’t it be nice if a company saved you time by providing the above ready-made resources to help you?

Well here it is… PeoplePix Pro.

This system utilizes all of the above features in an easy to access online portal.

• Includes training for your interviewers utilizing a best practices approach.
• Create, print, and customize interview guides for multiple positions using your existing company values.
•  Access to the hiring system materials which guide you through creating and implementing a values-based hiring system.

Online demonstrations of the system are available too. Contact us to find out more.