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Defend Your Candidate from the Competition and Superficial Assessments

By Lou Adler, December 19, 2007

I wrote a version of this article for ERE in April 2007. It seemed worthy of repeating as a year-end reminder of the critical role that recruiters need to play to ensure that bad decisions don't preclude the best person from getting hired. As you'll find out, the key point of the article is that good candidates, who we spent a great deal of time developing, can often be lost for easily preventable reasons. Setting up some process or check-point can prevent the problem from arising in the first place. If this isn't possible, you need to have some counter-measures ready to employ to mitigate any problems that do arise.

Read more articles by this author.

Related Topics:

Interview Training, Interviewing, Newsletter, Performance Profiles, Recruiter Training, Recruiting

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Finding a great person is hard enough, so we can't afford to lose this person for a preventable reason or a dumb mistake. Here are some ideas you might want to try in order to address these common problems:

1. Great candidate, but doesn't interview well. This is an old classic, but handling it now is more important than ever since your back-up candidate is probably not as good, or has other offers. The proactive defense for this is to tell your client that the candidate is not a great interviewer, but has achieved some significant and related accomplishments. You must provide real evidence to support your claims to offset the weak interviewing skills. If you've prepared a performance profile and conducted a performance-based interview you'll be in good shape on this front. Use deflection as another way to soften the blow. Have your candidate prepare a write-up of the two or three big tasks he's worked on that are most related to the real job requirements. Have your hiring manager review these ahead of time and suggest that they be discussed early in the interview. This will automatically redirect the conversation to performance rather than presentation.
2. Prep all of your candidates. A structured interview has been shown to increase assessment accuracy, especially if all job factors are considered. Unfortunately, even managers who have been trained on proper interviewing techniques rarely follow the process completely. Prepping candidates can help offset this. Here's an article that describes how to prep your candidates. Additionally, you might want your candidates to prepare a short PowerPoint presentation of their resume as a means to ensure a structured interview. During the actual interview allow candidates to walk step-by-step through their 6-8 page printed summary with the interviewer. In 30-point type the presentation should consist of a work-history overview, major accomplishments and recognition received at each job, and a summary of strengths and developmental needs. Even if you don't use the PowerPoint formally it's a great way for a person to learn how to best summarize and present his background.
3. Manager makes superficial or narrow decisions. There are two types of problems here. On one level are those mistakes caused by managers who rely mostly on intuition, gut feelings, or emotions when deciding to reject a good candidate. At the other extreme are managers who reject candidates out-of-hand who don't have the proper credentials or some arbitrary level of technical brilliance. Both problems can be minimized by preparing a performance profile before seeing any candidates. When taking the assignment ask the hiring manager what the person needs to do to be considered successful in the job. If a manager overemphasizes technical competency, ask how the technical skill would be used on the job. Then make sure you only present candidates who have accomplished something similar. To emphasize the fact that results are more important than qualifications, have the candidate prepare a write-up listing the person's two biggest accomplishments related to real job needs (see point 1 above). Make sure the hiring manager reviews these with the candidate during the first part of the interview. This technique forces the manager to judge the candidate on the person's ability to handle real job needs rather than gut feelings or possessing some arbitrary level of technical competency.
4. Manager sells too soon. This is a real problem when the candidate is superbly qualified for the job. Selling too soon, over-talking, and under-listening are sure-fire ways to cheapen a job or wind up in a bidding war. The counter-measure for this is to make the candidate earn the job rather than giving it away too easily. You do this by using the interview to find gaps and voids in the candidate's background in comparison to the real job requirements. The one-question performance-based interview is a great technique to use here. For example, while the person might be great, the person might not have handled as big a project or as big a team. In this case say something like, "While I like your product marketing background, I'm not sure you've handled a project expected to double in scope in the first 12 months. Can you tell me about your most challenging product launch assignment?" Then spend the next 10 minutes getting into all of the details. This allows the interviewer to stay in control by asking questions forcing the candidate to convince you. Listening four times more than talking is a great rule to follow when you get too excited about a prospect.
5. Candidate opts out for the wrong reason. When first discussing a job, recruiters and candidates alike over-emphasize the tactical reasons for considering moving forward, rather than the strategic ones. Compensation, titles, location, and the company's public reputation are tactical issues. Job stretch, career opportunity, the leadership skills of the manager, and the importance of the job to the overall company's business plan are strategic issues. To minimize early rejection, recruiters need to shift the candidate's decision-making from short-term to long-term. This takes some finesse as well as strong career counseling skills. One way to do this is to get the person to evaluate the job over a longer time frame. When a candidate opts out for short-term reasons, just ask her if she would reconsider if you could demonstrate that the job has more upside than all of her other opportunities. This is a reasonable trade-off that most candidates will consider. Of course, then you must deliver a better long-term career opportunity.
6. Candidate opts out for an apparently better job. First, you'll need to use the short-term vs. long-term reconsideration technique described in point five above. Then go through a ten point side-by-side comparison of your job vs. the competition. Here are a few of these points: job scope and impact, job stretch, long-term opportunity, compensation, hiring manager leadership skills, and cultural fit. (Email info@adlerconcepts.com if you'd like to receive a simple form we use to compare multiple jobs across all ten factors.) As part of this comparison, make sure you describe your position with specific details and raise questions about the other positions when the candidate uses generalities to describe it. For example, a response of "The other manager is really great" can be challenged by asking the candidate to further justify what "great" means. You need to prove your case here with details, not hyperbole, and then smash hyperbole when used against you.
7. Candidate takes a counter-offer. The best defense here is to delay your formal offer as long as possible. In fact, you should never make a formal offer until the candidate has agreed to all of the terms including a personal guarantee the person won't take a counter-offer. You do this by testing each component of the offer before presenting it using questions like, "If we could put together an offer package based on these terms (describe them), when would you be in a position to accept it?" (Here's an article with more details on how to test offers this way.) Then don't make the offer formal until the candidate agrees to accept it within 24 hours and provides a start date. As part of this you'll need to get the hiring manager more involved. The reasons most candidates accept counter-offers is because they're a bit unsure of the new job and their relationship with the new manager. To offset this concern it's important that the candidates spend serious time with the hiring manager and gain a clear understanding of job needs.

Being on top of your game is what it takes to be a great recruiter. Constant improvement is part of this. The common theme in all of these tips is to learn to defend your candidate from bad decisions and faulty reasoning. Part of this requires that you challenge your clients and your candidates alike. Recruiting the best people is not a transaction; it's a series of consultative steps that move the process along despite the hurdles along the way. Accepting and dealing with setbacks is part of the process. Success starts by not succumbing to them.