Performance Matters - Idea #27

OK, so its time to hire someone new or perhaps promote someone not-so-new. What's your strategy going to be to determine whether the candidate sitting in front of you is likely to perform well and contribute to success?

How does one get past the superficial? How does one get past the rehearsed responses? How does one get inside the candidates head to find out how they think, how they problem solve, and how they ultimately get things done? Are they a team player? Will they fit into your culture? Why not find those things out before you start paying them?

Perhaps the best strategy is the use of situational scenarios. Using this technique, the interviewer sets up a series of scenarios that are typical of the the kind of challenges that come with the position being filled. Scenarios can run the gamut from developing a budget, to handling an explosive customer complaint, to resolving an employee demand, toinnovating, to implementing a new program, to deciding amongst strategies, to addressing an ethical issue... Perhaps the scenario is one the candidate suggests that illustrate how they handled a particular type of challenge in their past experience.

Situational Scenarios allow candidates to show their stuff while providing the interviewer with an inside look at how the candidate is likely to approach challenges or problems. You can learn more about a candidate in an hour of scenarios than in several hours of traditional interview questions. Listen carefully to their responses - to their biases, assumptions, priorities, sequencing, time frames, political and financial sensitivities, etc.

Situational scenario interviewing is a potent tool for what is a managers most important responsibility - to find the right people for the right position and keep them. Next time you interview a candidate try spending at least half of your interview time allowing the candidate to respond to situational scenarios that you have designed. Give it a try! I think you're going to like it!


Bob

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Performance Builders