Can Auditions Be Too Much of a Good Thing?
I received an email from a reader today, along with an outline of their hiring process. They spend about 6-8 hours with each candidate, most of which is a series of auditions. They spend maybe an hour with behavior-description questions.
These folks have an atypical problem–they’re hiring for consultants, so they need to know how the consultant will work. What I find fascinating is the response from a candidate, “in NYC people get hired pretty much based on a handshake so why should I bother to do any amount of the work you are asking for.”
Ahem. I have some NYC clients and colleagues, and that is not their experience. And, if a candidate pushes back that much when I’m looking for guaranteed ability to perform a particular job, I’m pretty sure I don’t want that candidate.
On the other hand, there’s not a lot of interaction with a variety of people in the consulting company, and I would change that. 6-8 hours of auditions can look a lot like the interviewer is trying to get the candidate to work for free, something hiring managers want to avoid.The number of and time spent in auditions does depend on what you want. For most organizations, one brief audition before the in-person interview and one 30-45 minute audition during the interview is sufficient. The more strategic the person, (i.e. the higher in management, the more key the position), the more auditions you may need. But don’t neglect the in-person interview. The interview, especially with behavior-description questions will create rapport and start to build a relationship with a candidate, something auditions do not do.
8 comments November 21st, 2005