Ask the expert: It pays to invest time in hiring decisions

Q: I run a small department and although my company has an HR department I have been asked to interview candidates for a vacant position in my team.

In my jobs with other companies, a recruitment company has sifted through all the CVs and pre-interviewed the top 10 or so candidates and then the shortlisted ones were interviewed by the company's HR department.

By the time I got to see any candidates they had been thoroughly vetted and fitted our cultural values. Now I have to do this myself and I do not really know how to drill down past a person's CV to make sure that we get the best person.

I also don't really have the time as I am working overtime already as we are two people down.

A: I can appreciate that you feel pressed for time but staffing decisions are just about the most important (and costly) decisions that managers make. An investment in time to make the best choice will pay off.

And you don't have to do it all yourself, your existing staff may be able to contribute ideas and you may find other managers who are more experienced and can advise you.

Your first step is to look at the job description for the position and update or change aspects of the job that are not quite right. Next work out what knowledge, skills and personal characteristics the person must have to perform well in the job.

You should have a list of perhaps 10-12 elements that you are looking for; then you can think about the other "nice-to-have" skills and characteristics that might contribute to the team.

These are your criteria, the person must satisfy the "must-have" characteristics before you consider the "nice-to-have" elements. If you haven't advertised the position yet, you can save yourself a lot of time and bad applications by specifying the requirements in the ad, or making them available for inquirers.

Some employers require applicants to provide a statement of fit for their experience and skills to the criteria for the job, which allows the person to show aspects that may not jump out from an application or CV.

Be careful that what you are looking for really is required to perform the position, and test your logic: if the person has these 10 or 12 criteria will they definitely be able to do the job at adequate level? Avoid shortcuts, such as "two years of experience" or "New Zealand experience" and focus on what the person for the job actually has to know and be able to do.

If you are working from a pile of applications already received, then use your criteria of "must-haves" to work through them. If you have enough applications that clearly meet your criteria, that's your shortlist.

Before you call them to schedule interviews, however, make sure you generate a letter to each of the unsuccessful applicants thanking them for their application but telling them that they haven't been short-listed (even a photocopied form letter is better than nothing).You may want to use a telephone interview to verify that your short-list (and perhaps some of your top 'maybes') have the skills and abilities required.

In setting up interviews, try to schedule them as close as possible in time and try to narrow the short list to the top three to five applicants.

Having others involved at the interview stage is particularly helpful, so get your boss, co-workers and others who may interact with the position to help with interviewing. Review the job criteria with them, and generate questions that will help you to see if the person that you are interviewing has the skills that you are looking for.

Structured interview questions usually ask for examples of past behaviour that are similar to what they will be required to do in the new job. For example, if helping co-workers solve problems is important, you might ask if they can tell you about a time in prior jobs (or outside of work) that they helped team members solve a tough problem; exactly what happened, what did they do, etc.

Make sure that you keep a good record of their responses. After all the interviews, make a comparison of candidates, and select the candidate that meets all the "must have" characteristics at the best level and, possibly, has some "nice-to-have" characteristics as well.

You may have two close candidates at this point, so you might request examples of their work and call references (using the same structured questions to build an even greater knowledge of whether they meet your criteria). Finally, make a job offer to the successful candidate, hopefully with in-house resources for contracts.

You're still not done, though. You need to call the unsuccessful finalists and let them know they weren't selected, and thank them for their time. Who knows, you may need more staff quickly, and want to contact them if they've got potential.

And ... you now have to orient your new hire to the job; once again other members of staff may help you with this.

Generating criteria, shortlisting and interviewing may take 10-12 hours all up, but the difference between a good hire and a mediocre or poor hire can easily exceed three to four times their monthly salary, so it's not a bad return on your investment, even when time is at a premium.