How to start interviewing for retention

Do...

1) Clear your schedule - block out set times each day, week, or however often your calendar allows, that you'll be dedicated to candidate interviews. Have recruiters use these availability windows to schedule candidates.

2) Silence slack and email and devote yourself to the 30 minutes-hour of dedication to interviewing each candidate. Nothing is worse for a candidate than being on the other side of the table with a distracted, disengaged hiring manager.

3) Be prepared to sell yourself - it's on the candidate to research and understand your company the best way they can prior to meeting with you. And it's on you to share about why you joined the company, your leadership style, and the culture of the business

4) Choose your interview panel strategically - for each role + region, strategically select your repeatable interview panel to meet with your candidates. When you have multiple people interviewing candidates with no set process, you have feedback from too many individuals. Keep it simple and keep it consistent.

5) Prep and train your interviewers: make sure your team is prepared with topics, questions and interview training before they meet your candidates. Otherwise, you're going to get feedback like "Yeah, I liked her, she seems like a great culture fit" - what does that really mean, and how does it add value to your decision-making process?

Don't...

1) Assume the candidate isn't interviewing anywhere else. If they're talking to you (even when they say they're passively looking), they're entertaining other companies. Your competition.

2) Require a set amount of candidates to interview before making the decision. So often this holds up the interview process - it's understandable to want to have candidates to compare talent to, but when you know, you know...if their skillsets match, if their values are shared with you and your company, and their motivations to join your team are genuine - you shouldn't need to see five other candidates. It's a competitive market - take the leap!

3) Overload candidates with assessments and test, especially before meeting you. If you don't have time to meet the candidate before this stage, consider recording an intro video of yourself so that they can at least see what you have to say about why you joined the company, your philosophies, your leadership style, etc. Take five minutes to do this one time, and have your recruiter send the video before the candidate completes the tasks asked of them. Assessments are tricky - be mindful of the time you're asking candidates to commit.

4) Take your time with interview feedback. Take notes during your meeting, and allocate time each day or every two days to get your feedback in. Time kills all deals in sales...the same goes for keeping your candidates engaged.

5) Hire someone because they passed the beer test. In fact, do everything you can to eliminate this test from your process. It's important to hire people that are going to get along with the team, and you can determine this through other ways.

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