If you’re unhappy with your final candidate shortlisting, a ‘debate-off’ might not be the best way to find the winning applicant — but don’t rule it out!
The chances are that if you have been the hiring manager or worked as part of the HR team involved in the decision-making process behind a position, this may be a situation you have experienced before. What should you do if, after all the time spent and effort exerted, none of your final candidates are really a likely winner?
1. Don’t go (straight) back to the drawing board
The time that has gone into your particular hiring process must be considered in this instance. If months of work has gone into the search, you’ll naturally be under more pressure to close the position. Even if it has only taken a short amount of time to get you to the final shortlist, don’t rush to the conclusion of starting over; seek confirmation and consultation of your dissatisfaction from other stakeholders involved in the hiring process. Answer this question; Is the problem only seen by you?
2. It’s not me, it’s you!
Look in the mirror. Now that you have consulted other stakeholders try to have them get more involved to see if they notice the problems that you see. Put another interview in the mix with you outside of the room. That final shortlist deserves another shot before you call it quits.
3. Is It About Cultural Fit?
Sometimes you just have a gut feeling someone might not work out well at your organization. But you can never know if this is an accurate indicator or the result of some unconscious bias on your part. In fact, often, with interview processes nowadays being so process-driven and conducted in formal settings, the ability of your candidate to build rapport with interviewers might be seriously impacted. One piece of advice is to hit any gut emotion head-on. Set up a meeting on neutral turf, face to face, and give the candidates another chance to build rapport. It’s one of the most important factors in making a new hire work out for both the company and the candidate to find the balance of cultural fit and Value fit.
4. Get Better References
I can’t stress enough how vital unbiased references are to making the best hire possible — especially when you are down to the final names on the candidate shortlist. This means carrying out some detective work. Obviously, you cannot go out and ask people at your prospect’s current workplace, but try to look for people who may have had a relationship with the talent before. Ask the candidates how they feel about you contacting their previous places of work for the purposes of a reference check. Don’t be afraid to use the names of the people in those companies if you know them.
How do they react? Does their body language change at all? You might not even have to carry out the reference check depending on the reaction of your candidate.
5. Is It a Skill-Set Issue?
There are plenty of tools to assess the talent of many different backgrounds, and your HR team should be armed to the teeth with suppliers and technology. However, if you are still not convinced, then consider setting your own test. Use a real business case or build a scenario that your current team members and colleagues already have challenges with on a day-to-day basis, then have your final prospects from the candidate shortlist attempt it. Success in this type of assessment depends on the position being hired, so focus on the steps they take to reach an outcome rather than just the end result.
Candidate Shortlist Best Practice
Remember to consult, confirm, be human and do some detective work before you give up on the final candidate shortlist. Of course, no investigation process should be as difficult as assessing Trump or Biden, but then again, we shouldn’t think all the time in the world would help!
