The 3 Kinds Of People You Will Meet In The Interview Room

Posted On 2 Mar 2016

The 3 Kinds Of People You Will Meet In The Interview Room

2 Mar 2016
The 3 Kinds Of People You Will Meet In The Interview Room

Employer Resource, Interview Tips

The 3 Kinds Of People You Will Meet In The Interview Room

When the time comes to interview for a new role within your firm, there are three kinds of people you will meet:

  • Candidates that fit your culture and the needs of the role
  • Candidates that are a great cultural fit but don’t quite meet the needs of the role, and
  • Those that simply aren’t the right cultural match, irrespective of their skills and experience.

It’s pretty obvious what to do with candidates that can be classified under the first and last dot points, but what about those under the second?

Traditionally, these candidates would be directed out the door without a second thought, but businesses today can’t afford to be so dismissive; talent is hard to come by, so when it walks right up to your doorstep, you’d be foolish to turn it away. This necessitates a proactive approach to recruiting, commonly referred to as building a talent pipeline. Put simply, this means actively identifying talent not simply for the present but also for the future.

Building a talent pipeline doesn’t have to be a laborious process. In fact, one of the easiest ways to build your pipeline is to keep in touch with candidates that fall under that second dot point. Sure, establishing a reputation as an amazing employer and keeping an eye out for rising talent is important, but who better to populate your pipeline than people who have already come to you! When you walk into an interview, you now have two jobs:

  1. To find a culturally compatible candidate with the skills and experience required for the role (nothing’s changed here!), and
  2. To keep culturally compatible candidates that are unsuitable for the current role engaged and excited about potential future opportunities within your company. The only way you can do this is by walking into the interview with an understanding of your company’s long term plans, current talent and potential talent gaps.

Now more than ever, the importance of managing brand image and building talent pipelines cannot be underestimated. These strategies encourage talent to come to you and stay with you, and when it comes down to it, any strategy that eliminates the need for you to constantly search for talent is well worth the effort.