Recruiting the Best

Seems like summer began just yesterday, yet lots of you are already thinking about the upcoming fall recruiting season. Believe me, it’s not too soon. Investing time now in preparing the people who will conduct on-campus and follow-up interviews will likely yield long-term positive returns.

Spend July formulating your strategy for the upcoming interview season. If you’ve not used it, I urge you to incorporate behavioral interviewing into your recruitment plan. 

Developed by a group of industrial psychologists in the 1970s, behavioral interviewing is premised on the belief that past behaviors are the most effective predictors of future behaviors. Interviewers using this technique ask candidates to relate past experiences via a three-step process: 1) Describe a situation; 2) Describe how the candidate behaved; and 3) Describe the outcomes. 

For behavioral interviewing to be effective, you need to spend time this month identifying the behaviors that most succeed in your workplace. Think about the people who are most successful in your firm or company and critically examine what behaviors have helped them succeed. Similarly, consider the people who have been less successful or who have left, and ask, “What behaviors caused them not to succeed here?”

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Best communication practices during a pandemic

This year’s summer hires you will have fewer opportunities than their predecessors had to interact in person with employers and recruiters. Because of social distancing requirements, you’ll need to maximize every Zoom meeting to which you are invited as well as phone calls and emails. Don’t allow an unforced error to keep you from landing a job offer this fall.

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