The ability to read minds would be pretty handy when it comes to interviewing job candidates.
Let’s face it you are going to have to work with this stranger, every day, for years to come. In some cases, you will spend more time with this person than you do with your wife or husband.
Drew McAdam is a friend of mine and he reads minds.
If you have thoughts in your head, Drew will get them out of you. He is a professional Mentalist and has spent over thirty years perfecting his craft.
To see Drew work his “magic” is quite something and I encourage you to catch his show.
Why We Need To Make Excellent Recruitment Decisions
Clearly the better we know the candidate the better. This is a big decision and you want to get it right. Not only are you about to spend a huge amount of money, you are going to have to live with them day in, day out.
Let me ask you this; would you marry someone after spending just 30 minutes with them?
And yet you could end up spending as much time with this new employee as you do with your wife or husband.
A good recruitment decision can be great for the business and make your life as their line manager a whole lot sweeter. However, a bad recruitment decision can be disastrous.
It will be the line manager that suffers most in the event of a poor appointment.
But We Use A Recruitment Agency
even if you use a recruitment agency, you should be aware that your agency can only do so much to help you. At the end of the day, it will be your decision. It’s not your agency rep that is going to have to look at this person every day for the next five years or more.
But What if You Can’t Read Minds?
So how do you interview like a mind reader if you can’t read minds? What if you are not Drew McAdam?
Well none of us can do what Drew can. However, we can use personality reports to get to know our candidates a little better.
The Interview Pro range of personality reports is designed as an interview guide.
Most personality reports will tell you something about the candidate but leave you to figure out what that means to you.
Interview Pro is different because it is written as an interview guide. it is designed to help you get the candidate to talk and reveal what’s in their head.
Interviews are a very artificial environment and candidates arrive with a fair degree of armour. If you are to learn anything worthwhile about the candidate you have to get through the armour.
Here are some tips on how to use the Interview Pro Personality Report more effectively.
Tip 1 The Gauges
Each report contains several PeopleMaps Gauges. Each Gauge scores the candidate from 0-100 on very specific aspects of their personality. For example “Attention To Detail”.
Say to the candidate, “Your personality report scores you as 70 out of 100 for Attention To Detail. Do you think this is about right?”
The psychology here is very effective because you are using a third party (the report). You are also presenting them with something very specific, which keeps the subsequent conversation specific.
Tip 2 Use The Questions Provided
Each report contains personality centric interview questions you can use to aks the candidate. It also provides you with consultants comments as to what to look for in their answers.
These questions tend to be about the more difficult areas for the candidate, so don’t be too hard on them. Remember you are trying to get them to open up, not clam up in defence. Again use the fact that it’s not you that is saying this, it is the report.
The psychology here is that it gives the candidate permission to disagree. So where they can’t disagree with you because you are the interviewer, they can disagree with the report. This is a great way to get them to speak more openly.
So even if you can’t read minds like Drew, you can still discover what you need to know about your candidates before making a decision that will affect your life for years.
PeopleMaps personality reports will tell you about the candidate but use them wisely and they will also help you to get the candidate to talk more openly and reveal more about themselves.
You can read more about the PeopleMaps Recruitment Personality Test here.
