Risk & Business Magazine Knight Archer Insurance Spring 2016 | Page 22

Big Mistakes Interviewers Make
Learn How to Avoid Them

AN INTERVIEW OF DR. BRAD SMART, AUTHOR AND PRESIDENT AND CEO OF TOPGRADING, INC.

A

fter interviewing candidates for
hire, do you have an agonizing
feeling in your gut that candidates gave
you such vague answers you didn’t really
get to know them? Do more than half
of the people you hire turn out to be
disappointments?
If so, you are in good company. Dr.
Brad Smart has conducted more
than 6,500 hiring interviews and
has taught thousands of managers
how to avoid costly mis-hires. At
TopgradingCaseStudies.com you can
read dozens of case studies in which
companies large and small improved
from hiring 26% high performers to
85% HIGH performers.

Q: Brad, what is the #1 mistake
interviewers make?

Brad: Interviewers simply don’t ask
good follow up questions when they get
vague answers to questions, particularly
questions about mistakes, failures, or
weaker points.

Q: For example …
Brad: Suppose you are talking to your
candidate about a job 5 years ago and
ask, “What would your manager in that
job, Susan Smith, say you should improve
at?” Suppose your candidate responds,
“She said I should communicate better.”
This could mean a lot of things … maybe
the candidate is slow to return calls, or
uses bad grammar, or speaks too softly,