Love them or hate them, traditional Q&A job interviews are still perceived as effective and widely favoured by recruiters. But is simply having a chat about a candidate’s skills and experience really the best way to evaluate their potential?
Increasingly, it seems these old-school interview methods are missing the mark. For starters, it’s all too easy to game the system. Typical interview questions tend to be narrow and predictable and can be practised in advance, and candidates who nail their interviews don’t necessarily go on to become stellar employees.
This approach is also fraught with unconscious bias. Interviewers tend to assume candidates with looks and charisma are more capable, and pick people they like, who share common interests, rather than those with the most promise.
The upshot is traditional job interviews are actually among the worst predictors of on-the-job performance. And, as forward-thinking companies seek to address these shortcomings, new innovative hiring techniques are beginning to emerge. Here, we look at how some of these tools are being used to improve the selection process and engage potential hires.
Creating a clear picture
To glean more information about a candidate’s job fit, leading companies are incorporating online soft skills tests into their selection process, measuring traits like teamwork and rigour.
As part of its graduate selection scheme, KPMG Australia uses a game-based assessment to get an idea of applicants’ decision-making skills, and a values inventory to help understand their work style and what’s most important to them. Finance company Citi has also successfully piloted a soft skills survey, which compares candidates’ responses to a profile based on top-performing Citi employees and helps recruiters conduct more informed interviews.
As well as building a more rounded picture of candidates earlier on in the game, this approach reduces implicit bias and ensures applicants are assessed against the same criteria. The online nature of these tests also means more immediate and personalised feedback, something most applicants appreciate.
Screening at scale
Video is another tool/medium being used to reinvent hiring practices. At KPMG, graduates who have successfully passed their online assessments are sent a link to a video tool and asked to record their answers to a few pre-set questions.
With more than 10,000 graduates applying for each intake, this gives KPMG the opportunity to assess critical communication skills at scale. The videos are easily shareable enabling greater collaboration between hiring managers. This pre-screening method means fewer people are called in for interview, making the hiring process more time-efficient for recruiters.
It’s also more convenient from the candidate’s perspective. They can complete the interview from home and at a time that suits them and video is a platform they’re usually already comfortable with. This can make the experience less confrontational and saves the most promising applicants from the pain of successive interview rounds.
Try before you buy
A big failing of traditional interviews is that they don’t test on-the-job skills – and that’s where job tryouts come in. These give candidates a challenge to tackle and are popular in industries like finance and tech where problem-solving is key.
Investment firm Citadel is one of a growing number using day-long auditions to screen multiple applicants simultaneously. Working in teams candidates compete for cash by solving real problems with data, meanwhile recruiters assess their technical prowess, as well as soft skills like collaboration and critical thinking.
The excitement generated by these events also provides an opportunity to engage with talent on a more practical and personal level, and forge potentially fruitful connections for the future.
Other employers have introduced longer work auditions into the final stages of their recruitment process. After the usual round of face-to-face interviews, web hosting company Weebly offers choice applicants a paid trial week. This has helped to unearth people who are not necessarily good at interviewing but do great work. At the same time, candidates get a real sense of the day-to-day job.
Innovation in action
Taking the concept of job tryouts to a whole new level, some companies are now using virtual reality (VR) to evaluate potential hires in simulated work scenarios.
To narrow down top-performing applicants for its Emerging Leadership Program, Lloyds Banking Group hosts a day-long assessment visit where candidates complete tasks in a 360-degree virtual world. This gives recruiters a first-hand look at behaviour and the opportunity to measure specific strengths.
In terms of candidate engagement, using VR technology in this way can also help to impress applicants – rather than just telling them how innovative they are, companies can show them.
This was certainly the aim at Commonwealth Bank, but on a broader scale. In a bid to shake off its stereotypical bank image, it developed a VR careers experience app that pairs with Google cardboard and released it to the world. Allowing users to run a virtual project from a CBA innovation lab, the app has not only given thousands of potential recruits insight into working at CBA, but it’s also helped to re-position the brand as more future-focused.
VR may be out of your reach right now, but many of these new hiring techniques can be tailored to small business needs and resources – and while traditional interviews will be here for some time yet, you risk being left behind if you stick rigidly to old methods.
By incorporating smarter strategies into your hiring mix you can streamline processes, assess candidates more objectively and open up a more diverse talent pool. Embracing more innovative recruitment tools can also boost your reputation as an employer, helping you attract top talent both now and into the future.
