Pre-screening Applicants
HRchristineAZ
5 Posts
Although I read the posts on the forum everyday, this is the first question I have posed to the forum. Hopefully you can give me some good advice!
I have only been working in HR at this particular company for a couple months. We have no procedure for pre-screening applicants in place. Subsequently, most of the people we interview for lower level positions are a waste of time. I firmly believe you can tell a lot about a person by doing an initial screening, and then deciding if you want to set up an interview with that person.
We use committees for hiring all positions, usually one person from HR, the supervisor for the dept and the manager for the dept. I brought up the subject of pre-screening to a manager during our last round of picking applicants. She is against it because it's something "we've never done before". How can I handle her resistance to change? She also thinks that having HR do the initial screening takes away from the committee process we use. Does anyone have any advice/suggestions? I'd also be interested in seeing what other companies use for their pre-screening questions.
I have only been working in HR at this particular company for a couple months. We have no procedure for pre-screening applicants in place. Subsequently, most of the people we interview for lower level positions are a waste of time. I firmly believe you can tell a lot about a person by doing an initial screening, and then deciding if you want to set up an interview with that person.
We use committees for hiring all positions, usually one person from HR, the supervisor for the dept and the manager for the dept. I brought up the subject of pre-screening to a manager during our last round of picking applicants. She is against it because it's something "we've never done before". How can I handle her resistance to change? She also thinks that having HR do the initial screening takes away from the committee process we use. Does anyone have any advice/suggestions? I'd also be interested in seeing what other companies use for their pre-screening questions.
Comments
First welcome to the forum, we are glad you decided to step in and feel the water. Pre-screening has always been the roll of the HR. In all of the businesses in which I have been the HR, I CONTROL THE FLOW OF CANDIDATES. Otherwise, your perception and experience is absolutely correct. At one point, I even had the budget to control my expense in going to "job fairs" doing the ads to generate applicants and/or resume'. I have gone out into the world to find people that would be a fit in our company, those that did not pass my screen got to talk with no one. I have video taped interviewees and shown them to the management team for their selection of candidates for one-on-one interviews.
I am sure the more confident the selection team becomes in your interview skills the committee will charge you with the initial screen. There were several specific guidelines provided to me by the leadership that made pre-screening fun and gave me power in the company. Currently,I weed out about 90 % of the management applications/resumes for lack of the basic attributes that the company would be looking to find in all candidates.
Attitude, attitude, and attitude tied to experience in the field of interest with a personality that will fit the within the specific department will or should get a candidate pass the HR to the selecting committee. I have also used interviews by group or committee. I found much more flexibility when following up with the individual committee members to lead guid and direct the potential fit of the individual. The candidate must have an umsbudsman within the team in order to control the selection and line-up or you'll find that the best candidates may be lost to the group/committee nature to stick together and co-support each other, rather than step out and state the good and bad about a candidate.
Hope this helps, and always feed your committee PORK for their meal break and they will always let you lead them any where!
PORK
As far as pre-screening, I look at the job description and if an applicant has indicated that they have the minimum experience, education and or skills we require I bring them in for an interview, make a decision on the best 3-4-5 depending on the position and then determine, sometimes with a second interview, the best of the best to move forward with the process.
You've been there two months, so, you're at best an unproven commodity. Any of us would be. It will take you approximately three to five more new hires at the professional level for this to work for you. You must establish your credibility with the team and most importantly, her. It's important that you show them your stuff. Prove to them that you're an ace at making processes work; Recruiting, phone interviews, background checks, paperwork, recommendations, sizing candidates up, lining up interview schedules and agendas, picking up candidates at the airport, taking over the greeting and ushering around process for the applicant, and bragging on the team members to the candidates in front of the team members; all of that will make you or break you. Do good work in these processes and document thoroughly and load them down with copies of your recomendation memos and your comments on candidate backgrounds, and ALWAYS provide a timely, profesionally formatted interview schedule with resume attached. They will soon see how valuable a player you are and what credible work you produce. After about three, four or five new hires where your early recommendations and good work match the concensus of the committee, and they're going to be putty in your hands. At that point, send them all a professional memo recommending a procedural change. You've shown them you do excellent work and are trustworthy and reliable. Now recommend that they allow you to take some of their work off them by pre-screening candidates and saving their valuable time. If you've done it correctly, with excellence, it'll be a snap!
Even today I follow the very same pattern to include all the logistic arrangements, the schedule of interview events, etc. I usually take the Sunday evening interview slots so I get a real good Catfish or steak dinner or my favorite Smoke Pork with all the trimmings.
Take "Dandy Don's" post and go for it, you can't go wrong, it works! Don't worry one minute about the other department manager, you'll show her some real interviewing skills soon, take charge and make things happen.
PORK