Final assessment phase
Assessment is as much art as it is science, and it is, at best, an imperfect way to hire. Interviews, for example, tend to only predict future performance with about 25% accuracy. Psychometric assessment similarly. This is why it is important – as long as you take into account the candidate’s experience and do not ask them to jump through too many hoops unnecessarily – to use different methods to assess individuals. Coming at the role from several angles, including diverse stakeholders, and using different methods will give you a more rounded picture.
Assessment is not usually used in non-Executive appointments but can be extremely useful when properly used for executive recruitment. Using two or three different instruments to explore leadership preferences, personality traits, or how candidates respond to stress, can be illuminating. As they are expensive, we recommend they are only used on the final shortlist, only as part of a suite of factors, and only to give you questions with which to test candidates.
You may want to put candidates through two or three different rounds of interview with diverse audiences. The insight of service user panels can be particularly illuminating. However, although these can be helpful in providing you with multiple perspectives the amount of data can be daunting and, on occasion, conflicting. Ultimately, you will still have to apply careful judgement. It is easy to forget that the candidate is as likely to be assessing you as you are assessing them. Creating the conditions for a constructive exchange is critical. You will want to start each interview with a round of introductions and a little scene-setting and leave time at the end for candidate questions. More than five interviews in a day can be tiring and the final candidate is unlikely to get the best from you unless you give yourselves regular breaks. Look to do all your shortlist interviews in one day wherever possible.
During the interviews, consider:
- Who will chair each panel?
- How will feedback be recorded in auditable fashion?
- Who comprises each panel and how does each panel complement the rest?
- What are you looking to explore with each panel?
- Is each panel suitably diverse and representative?
- Which panels have a voice and which have a vote?
- Would you benefit from having someone independent on your panels?
- Is the interview setting conducive to a positive discussion?
- Do you need to provide any reasonable adjustments?
