The assessments should not exceed 1/3 of the hiring decision. In rank, I would say:

1. Drive and passion – what are their goals and how do they align with what you have to offer, including $. Also, are they prepared for the interview? Have they taken the time to understand your business? People who are passionate about a job prepare for their interview.

2. Accomplishments and experiences – what has the person accomplished and how do those accomplishments match up with what you want done?

3. Assessments – how well does their profile match the job? Are their “holes” in the profile? Do their drives and motivations match the job well?

4. Performance in any role-playing or “work with us for a morning.” How do they do? Are they proactive and engaged? Do they jump in and take ownership or do they sit back? How do they communicate with customers and with co-workers? Do they learn quickly?

5. References – what do other people say about them? Are they enthusiastic or polite in their nice comments (rare to get truly negative comments)?

If your current process for interviewing and hiring new employees is less than rigorous, you may be concerned that an in-depth, time-consuming interview process will scare off good people. I have found just the opposite to be true. A-players are attracted by high standards. They want to work with other strong, effective people. When you take them through a challenging interview process, they figure that your current employees must be pretty good – otherwise they would never have made it through the process.

Here are five steps for taking your job interview process to the next level:

1. Benchmark the job. When I help companies to improve their interview process, we start by defining success for the position and being specific about the talents and experiences people must have to be successful. If you haven’t defined these factors, you can’t ask good questions in the interview.

2. Create an interview scorecard. Judge every candidate according to the same performance-related criteria. This helps you to avoid the tendency to “fall in love” with a candidate who interviews well but can’t or won’t perform. It also helps you to focus on candidates who may start out the interview process slowly, but in the end have all the characteristics of an A-player.

3. Use multiple interviewers. You will make better hiring decisions if you have the same group of informed people interview every candidate. Include all the interviewers in creating the job benchmark – it will keep you all on the same page when you are making your final hiring decision.

4. Do a post-game analysis. Immediately after an interview, each interviewer should individually score the candidate using the scorecard. Then, the interviewers discuss their scores and come to agreement on the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate. It never fails that one interviewer catches an important point that everyone else missed.

5. Use multiple visits. Have candidates come back for at least a second interview. This gives you an opportunity to see how each person follows up and follows through.

6. Use validated assessment instruments. Good assessments give you insight into people that you will never get from an interview. Incorporate them early enough into the interview process that you can follow up on the results in a second interview.

There is no downside to following these steps every time you need to fill a position. Not only do they help you to avoid hiring mistakes – they help to attract the best people to your company!

I work with companies across the country on implementing this process – if you want more information, just drop me an email or give me a call. I would love to talk with you.