By David Wolfe
You’ve looked over the candidates, and you have narrowed them down to a handful who have most of the qualifications that you want. It’s worth talking to them on the phone. Now comes the initial step of the screening process.
There are two questions that I recommend asking:
First: “What was most compelling about the job description that made you apply?” In asking this, you’re trying to learn what popped out to them. What is motivating them? You’re trying to find out if they have good initial motivators or bad initial motivators.If they answer that question in a way that’s all about them, or what the job is going to give them, then that goes in the bad initial motivator bucket. If they talk about salary, PTO, and benefits up front, that’s the bad bucket.
The good bucket holds answers such as, “I really like your story, I like your mission, I like your purpose. What you stand for is exciting, so I applied.” The answers to this question reveal their main motivation and the hot button that you’re going to sell to throughout the recruiting process. Most candidates are smart enough to avoid bad-bucket answers, so if the candidate goes directly to salary and benefits, that’s a sign that the person is selfish, and you probably don’t want to go any further in the interview process with that person.
But if they’re compelled to apply because of good reasons, that is a sign that the process should continue.
Second: “Why are you looking for a new position?” With this question, you’re trying to learn if leaving their current position to come work for you will solve a problem, or if it will just continue that problem. For instance, if they say the main reason they’re exploring your opportunity is, “I’m really tired of being on-call over the weekend,” and you know your position requires weekend call hours, well, that’s a mismatch. You might want to think twice about going further.
Or if they say, “I’m really tired of working for a doctor that micromanages me like crazy, I have to find something new,” and you know that the doctor that you’re hiring for has a reputation for micro- managing his Nurse Practitioners, then it’s almost a nonstarter.
Attraction-based recruiting is describing a position in such a way that it touches on the most important motivators that drive people to seek a new job. Let’s review those Five Prime Motivators for candidates again:
- Work-life balance. More time with loved ones.
- This position sounds prestigious. I would be proud to tell others what I do, and I am good at this.
- The position offers a way to advance skills and improve career trajectory.
- Proximity to loved ones.
- Typically people make a 5–10 percent increase in base salary when they take a new position. If they stay in their current job, on average people received a 2–3 percent increase each year.
When a candidate looks for a new position, their motivation will fall into one or more of those buckets. Your job is to find what the candidate’s motivators are and sell to those. Are they looking at this position because it’s close to family? Does it offer better work/life balance? That’s what you’re trying to figure out in that first interview—which bucket the candidate fits into.
It’s perfectly appropriate to talk about money and benefits later in the process, before an offer or at the time of an offer. But if they’re talking about money and benefits and what’s in it for them on the first phone interview, then they’re typically not a team player. They’re not the kind of person you want to build a world-class team around, because they’re already talking about what’s in it for them.
After the initial phone interview, we send the candidate what we call a candidate information sheet (CIS) to fill out. It has five to seven questions that ask them what their base salary is, what their desired salary is, and other good information about what’s motivating them. The sheet does two things. First, it unlocks some of the other things that they’re looking for in the position, so that we can sell to those pain points or hot buttons throughout the recruiting process.
Secondly, it shows whether the candidate can write. In most positions, there’s a decent amount of writing, and you want to know if this person can form sentences well and use good grammar. They need to have that skill, and this is an indicator of whether they do or not.
A key part to this interview is to put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself, “Do the reasons they are looking for a new job sound valid and legitimate? Do they have good reasons for looking?” What great recruiters can do is hear what’s not being said. They can pick up on what the candidate is hiding by being perceptive to voice tones, pauses, hesitations, rote stories, and lack of authenticity. Trust your gut here.
If you feel they are sincere and you feel their reasons for looking are good, then one of the most powerful things you can do is articulate their problem better than they can. ften they will automatically assume that you and your group are the answer. Here’s an example: Say the candidate says something like, “I am putting in lots of hours, more than they said when I first came on board. And it’s way more on-call than they said it would be.” You can say something like, “I can completely understand; you are feeling burned out and stretched thin. You are missing your son’s soccer games, and when you are there you’re completely exhausted and not really engaged. And you’re probably not compensated for those extra hours you are putting in. We hear this a lot.” Because you have articulated their problem better than they could, they feel listened to and cared for, and are more likely to trust you and your group.