Tuesday, March 5, 2013

GREAT INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

From time to time I have written about the art of interviewing cleaning techs and the importance of making them feel at home and then asking the right questions. This is such a major part of managing our companies---and very expensive in terms of dollars and cents.

Little has been said though about the interview process and questions for mid and upper level managers that we recruit and bring on board. Recently I read an article in Forbes magazine entitled "14 Revealing Interview Questions". A couple of them really impressed me and I thought it would be good to share them with you. The authors are properly credited.

1. If you got hired, loved everything about this job, and are paid the salary you asked for, what kind of offer from another company would you consider?---Ilya Pozin founder of Ciplex.

This is a great question isn't it? You really find out with this question if the person is strictly motivated by money or working at a place they love. In other words, can they be bought. I must admit I have never asked that question in an interview. Have you? No question, money is extremely important in our lives and certainly is a motivating factor, but if that is all that drives us, accomplishments mean very little and it will show a certain shallowness in the character of the individual. These are my words not the author of the question.

2. Tell me about a time when things didn't go the way you wanted--like a promotion you wanted and didn't get, or a project that didn't turn out how you had hoped?---Tony Knopp, co-founder, CEO of Spotlight Ticket Management.

This one I have asked before and got all kinds of answers.  My thinking was that we needed a cohesive team and not someone pouting or placing blame. Mr. Knopp puts it this way,

"Answers tend to fall into three basic categories: 1) blame 2) self deprecation, or 3) opportunity for growth". He goes on to explain that his company requires focused employees, willing to wear many hats, and sometimes go above and beyond the job description, so he wants team players with the right attitude and approach. If the candidate points fingers, blames, goes negative on former employers, communicates with a sense of entitlement, he or she won't do well with his company. 

Now think about this previous statement. In our business, isn't it almost a regular occurence that our managers are asked to do something not in their direct job description. After all, isn't our job one of satisfying the customer, not defending our job description? That is why I always had as the last item in EVERYONE'S job description the words--OTHER DUTIES AS ASSIGNED. If you don't have it in your job descriptions for each position, let me suggest you put it in. Makes for lot fewer headaches and discussions down the road. 

Another one I really liked and was authored by Deborah Sweeney, owner and CEO of MyCorporation. "Tell me about a project or accomplishment that you consider to be the most significant in your career". This one tends to open the door to a number of follow up questions like What was your position when you accomplished this? or Who else was involved with you on this accomplishment? These questions tend to provide some answers to their work habits, their ability to work smoothly with others etc. If they can't think of anything, you probably don't have the candidate you want for a mid or upper level management position or the same applies if the accomplishment they give is really not something even they would not consider significant if they are being honest.

By the way, I have used a question for line workers like tell me about your greatest accomplishment in life and then I follow up with tell me about your biggest disappointment. I am always amazed at the number of applicants that can't give me an answer to either question. Depending on their age this tells me if I can consider them for a supervisory position in the future. Doesn't mean I won't hire them as a cleaning tech, I just will think twice about promoting them to a supervisory position. On the other hand they may display traits that tell me they could learn and grow by attending our supervisory training class. 

There is no question it is extremely important in an interview to draw the candidate into a conversation that will give you real insight into their ambition, character, and stability. All to often we find ourselves doing all the talking and none of the listening. We spend all our time telling them about the position that we don't draw them out and let them answer telling questions that will help us make an informed decision on hiring.  Does doing all the talking in the interview and little of the listening sound like anyone you know? You see, if you let them do the talking now and you hire them, you get to do the talking later as you take them through the training process in their new position. 

We talked in previous blogs about the high cost of recruiting and training employees in our industry and they are the highest when you are recruiting mid and high level management staff. Don't mess it up. Conduct a professional interview, do the proper profile testing, and hire right the FIRST time. It makes life so much easier on all of us. You will certainly sleep better at night.

Thanks to many of you we are reaching all time highs in the viewers and listeners to our weekly pod casts. We are averaging over 11,000 listeners each week. That's a lot of folks and we are very excited about the tripodcast acceptance. If you haven't been listening, you can get this free information at www.tripodcast.com. We have several very exciting guests coming up that you won't want to miss. This week, Chris Stathakis gives us great insight into peer groups. 

Till next time.


No comments: