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Team Interviewing-Streamlining the Process

One of the current trends in organizations is of multiple people interviewing over multiple interviews.  The thought behind the trend is that different people have different perspectives and different abilities to assess a candidate.  That is true, but what it is also is doing is causing many people to have power over the hiring process.  Do you need eight people to agree on a candidate? How often is it that 90% of the people loved a candidate, but there is that one who won’t get on board so the hiring process goes back to the drawing board.  Was that candidate really not a fit, or was there more going on?

As organizations create an interview team to access a candidate’s fit and skill set.  Determining who is on the team of decision makers is important.  Is there a potential that the candidate could be perceived as a threat to advancement or potential job loss by of one of the interviewers? Are the interviewers assessing skills or is the intent to find how the teammates meld with the individual?

Deciding who needs to have a say in the decision such as department head and a key executive is important.  Those are the people that need to interview. Limiting the power of who is getting hired to a few reduces the chance of turning away a great candidate.  Yet meeting the team and it having a say is important.  So change the process.  First interview the team.  Get consensus on skill set needed by the team.  Interview the candidates with one or two key decision makers and make a decision.  Either select one or two candidates and bring them in to meet the team.  Informing the team this candidate fits the agreed upon skillset have them meet the team.  This isn’t an interview, and you aren’t looking to give them veto power, but rather assessing fit.  Telling the candidate and the team it’s a meeting rather than an interview does a couple things.  It can help the decision makers access fit into the team, but it doesn’t give up control of the hiring process.  It also limits the number of decision makers, making consensus easier.