One of the most daunting tasks in any organization is the HIRING responsibility, well resting with the HR. The staffing/ hiring process in any organization speaks for itself when there is a right FIT, and not.
“Right person for the right job, more importantly, hired at the right time”.
INTERVIEWING/ SELECTION process is the most vital part of any hiring process. Interestingly, the Draupadi SWAYAMVARA event in the epic Mahabharat offers an interesting angle to it. Prince Arjuna was put through a stringent evaluation process, mind-boggling, but a ruthless one, to win over the charming Princess Draupadi. The test was to string the “state of the art”, five-arrow bow, the PINAKA & shoot into the eye of a mechanical fish. He wasn’t allowed to see the fish directly, this pushed the stringency levels up by several notches. Prince Arjuna had to aim the eye from its reflection in the water situated in a huge vessel near his feet. If this wasn’t enough, the fish was stuck to a revolving disc. However, he was determined to make his way through, he put his best foot forward to aim at the eye of the revolving fish. At one time all he could see was the eye of the fish. His mentor, Acharya Drona, seized the moment & pushed him to go ahead with the KILL. Prince Arjuna hit the eye of the fish, Princess Draupadi put the bridal garland around his lucky neck. They got married over an elegant, star-studded wedding event, minus the social-media coverage.
Those who have read the epic in detail would know that it was a “HEAD HUNTING” effort. Indeed, the interviewer is Princess DRAUPADI & the candidate is the handsome Prince Arjuna.
We could go on & beyond on the learning from the epic, however, the pertinent nuggets are as follows
a). Clearly, Princess & her family aimed for Prince Arjuna. However, he was in exile along with his family, all in disguise. In hiring parlance, he was a PASSIVE candidate. Princess had to think OUT of the BOX to bring him to the table, eventually, WIN over.
b). There is a Prince Arjuna for every Princess Draupadi & vice-versa. There is a candidate for every vacant position & vice-verbsa. One has to align the hunt to reach out to the right candidate.
c). The hiring process has to be outstanding, stringent & creative. It should pick the needle from the haystack, the current market.
d). The Prince had sound credentials, he came from the right family background. He had the right amount of education, skills & competencies. In short, his resume was impeccable. However, he had to prove himself to be worthy of the Princess. However, good the candidate may appear to be, formal assessment is MANDATORY.
e). Like any good employer, the Princess didn’t hesitate to stringently evaluate him. She showed off her hiring process with extreme elegance & pride.
f). Given the unique hunting spree, the Princess would have ended up meeting “NONE” fitting the specifications. However, she didn’t give up, didn’t compromise on the agreed process. She didn’t panic while rejecting many Prince from the pool of deserving ones.
By now, it has been well-established that interviewing is a vital step in any hiring process. The next step is to actually “DO” a good interview & find the RIGHT fit for the position. Here goes the list of 7 KEY ASPECTS to evaluate when one wants to hire a “GOOD to GREAT” candidate.
1). INTEGRITY – It simply means honoring the commitment to self & others. In the case of junior & mid-level positions, relevant interview questions & reference checks help to evaluate the integrity levels. In senior-level hiring, one must use psychometric tools as well.
2). FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCY – Primarily, a candidate gets hired for her/ his functional competency. This helps one to do a job satisfactorily. Every job requires a specific technical competency, at specific levels in the incumbent. Written examinations & good interview questions help to evaluate the same in the junior/ mid-level interviews. However, in the case of senior-level interviews, one has to rely completely on interview questions.
3). BEHAVIOURAL COMPETENCY – Like the functional competency, the behavioral competency also needs to be assessed well. No employee works in a silo all the time, we are interdependent. Hence, working with & through teams requires sharp, polished skills to conduct oneself. In the case of junior/ mid-level candidates, this gets assessed in the staple interviews. However, one may need psychometric tools to assess the same in senior-level candidates.
4). VALUES/ MOTIVES – This refers to the personal values of the candidate. While interviewing, one must try to understand the extent to which the values of the candidates match with the values of the organizational values. Again, the various psychometric tools throw sufficient light on this aspect.
5). JOB CHANGE INDEX – It refers to the average period of stay of a candidate in an organization. The history can be assessed easily, both the mathematical version & the version of the candidate in the interviews. However, all one can do is a “weather forecast” to predict the average period of stay in the company to be hired into. An average of 3 years in any organization seems to be the preferred norm now.
6). GROWTH POTENTIAL – Many interviewers end up hiring, for the time being, a typical fire-fighting mode hiring. However, SMART hiring is to pick candidates keeping in mind the roles & responsibilities emanating in the future. It is important to check the energy levels, aspirations, hard-working ability, engagement level, intelligence & competency for the future role as well. Again, psychometric tools help to assess how well a candidate turns over time.
7). TRIGGERS/ REASONS FOR LEAVING – It is imperative to understand what triggered the candidate to leave the various organizations that she/ he had worked on so far. Irrespective of the formats used to capture the inputs, one must exercise utmost caution when it comes to candidates quitting jobs for reasons like compensation & benefits, unjustifiable location constraints & ethical issues.
Now, how does one create a good interview evaluation format?
There is no such thing as a “STANDARD INTERVIEW EVALUATION” format. It is best to have a tailor-made format suiting the curves & cuts of any organization. Follow the basic guidelines while drawing one, the rest is up to the creativity of the HR & the functional team.
May you need support in designing sturdy interview evaluation formats for your firm, do get in touch with us at contact@orangemaslow.com.
Meanwhile, Happy INTERVIEWING!!
Nageshwari A & Venkatakrishnan R
