A MID West meeting has sent out a warning to companies across the region of the dangers of ‘bad interviewing’.
A recent seminar, hosted by Shannon Chamber, heard that 65 per cent of people conducting interviews within organisations were not qualified to do so.
Sinead English, CEO and founder of Hilt, a provider of career growth advisory services for both individuals and organisations, told attendees that a proper system to get hiring right is needed within many companies.
“Being a great judge of people or phrases such as ‘I’ll know it when I see it’ are simply unacceptable when searching for skills critical to an organisation’s development. Interviews shape the future of a company; that’s why hiring managers need to have a system in place to get it right first time,” Ms English told the seminar.
“Unless the interview process is structured and people are trained to interview, the desired outcomes won’t be attained.”
According to the Hilt CEO, there are five key steps that enable interviewing excellence – identifying the skills required; mapping the questions that meet the criteria for the job; not taking candidates’ answers at face value, but probing for deeper information; eliminating bias and selling the position so that those being interviewed know exactly what their future potential within the organisation might be, if hired.
“Candidates expect feedback. If a company is slow in contacting a candidate post interview, that talent may be lost, particularly if the talent pool for a particular skill is limited,” she warned.
Having worked as a HR manager prior to joining Shannon Chamber, CEO Helen Downes said that Ms English’s message was exactly what members needed to hear in a competitive jobs market.
“With companies competing for talent, the messages delivered were exactly what our members need to hear. The cost to a company of making a wrong hiring decision can be immense. It can result in lost production, disruption of productivity of other employees, missed business opportunities, and potential damage to company reputation,” Ms Downes said.
