Creative Screening

Some recruiters and hiring managers use unusual techniques in an attempt to get beneath the polished surface of job candidates. Seeking input from receptionists, adding uncommon assessments and observing the way candidates interact with each other are just some of the ways HR professionals look for cultural fit.

By Lin Grensing-Pophal

When prospective employees are engaged in the recruitment process, they're making every effort to put their best foot forward -- at least overtly.

But sometimes candidates leave subtle cues, whether they know it or not, about what they're really like. And sometimes HR professionals and hiring managers can nudge them in that direction by creatively digging below the surface to uncover those telling signs.

For instance, one credit union that is interested in hiring managers who are truly committed to serving others positively and professionally uses this technique: During a group interview with a job candidate, a late arrival bursts into the conference room. The late arrival is casually, even somewhat sloppily, dressed. Unbeknownst to the candidate, the late arrival is the credit union's CEO.

How does the candidate respond? Does he seem frustrated at the interruption? How does she acknowledge/respond to the new arrival? Is the candidate inclusive in responses and eye contact -- or is the disheveled interrupter ignored or treated differently than the other interviewers?

In another, more widely known, example, Southwest Airlines asks job candidates to prepare and make a presentation in front of a group of other job candidates. While most candidates are understandably quite focused on their own performance, what Southwest hiring personnel are really observing is the way the candidates respond as audience members. Are they attentive or bored? Do they listen actively or work on other things? Do they offer encouragement?

And then there are the chance insights that companies can infer from the way candidates interact with staff, customers or clients.

Recently, a management candidate was not hired by one company because of the way he interacted with the receptionist when checking in for his interview. The receptionist was on the phone and signaled him to take a seat.

Instead he loomed over her, speaking loudly and demanding that she end the call and attend to his needs.

It seems hard to believe that any serious job candidate would engage in such behavior, but about one in five job candidates don't pass the receptionist test, says Ann Rhoades about her clients' experiences.

Rhoades, author of Built on Values: Creating an Enviable Culture That Outperforms the Competition, is president of Albuquerque, N.M.-based People Ink, an HR consultancy that works with companies such as JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines and Doubletree Hotels on their hiring processes.

As troubling as the candidate's behavior, she says, is that few organizations take the time to talk to their receptionists about what they observe.

Values Trump Competencies

Organizations that take the time to explore candidate behavior outside of the formal interview setting can generate many useful insights, Rhoades says.

For instance, she says, do candidates talk with others sitting in the reception area? Do they use the words, "I" or "me" a lot or is their tendency more toward "they" and "we?" And, of course, are they pleasant and respectful of everyone they encounter regardless of rank, role or personal appearance?

Grand Circle Corp., a Boston-based tour operator that provides international travel, adventure, and discovery services for Americans aged 50 and older, uses similar techniques to assess candidates as they interact with others in various settings.

When Grand Circle conducts group interviews with multiple candidates for various jobs that may be open, candidates are observed interacting with each other and with Grand Circle personnel, says Martha Prybylo, vice president of corporate culture.

They are looking for such elements as whether the candidates smile often and readily, whether they smile only at the managers, whether they interact with their peers or appear to be trying to just impress those making the hiring decisions.

The ability to assess candidates for cultural fit is critical, says Prybylo, who has been with the company for the past 17 years. The company's owners, Alan and Harriet Lewis, are passionate about culture.

"As the company began growing, they began to be concerned around the dilution of the corporate culture," says Prybylo. "They realized they needed to be a lot more intentional about it."

At Grand Circle, she says, "we hire for the culture first and the skills second."

One of the company's unique assessment tools is known as the "raw egg exercise," in which the candidate group is broken into smaller groups. Each group is given a raw egg, straws and a certain amount of tape, and they are asked to create a "travel vessel" that will safely carry the egg even when dropped by someone standing on a chair. The candidate group is also asked to develop a marketing presentation for "selling" their designed vessel.

Before candidates even get to this stage, they go through another assessment they may not even be aware of, Prybylo says. After being greeted by the receptionist, Laverne, "a pretty outspoken Texan and full of vim and vigor," the candidates are asked to wait in the lobby while a television displays skits from the annual program held at the leadership center.

"We can pretty much get a read from someone's reaction" about how the candidate may assimilate into the culture, she says. The intent is "to put us at our most outrageous."

And, she notes, the desire for cultural fit works both ways.

Some candidates opt out at the egg-drop stage, she says, noting that "a couple of weeks ago, we had two people walk out."

Getting to the Nitty Gritty

Most HR leaders probably agree that alignment with company culture and values is critically important in hiring decisions, but the challenge occurs in accurately assessing a candidate's values.

Roberta Chinsky Matuson, founder and principal of Human Resource Solutions in Brookline, Mass., says some hiring managers and HR professionals use social settings and other ways to catch candidates off-guard.

"Companies will intentionally call people in the evenings, which catches people off-guard," she says. "They do this to gain another perspective on how someone acts when they don't know they are being observed."

She adds that this technique was actually used on her a number of years ago. Fortunately, she says: "I always answer the phone in an upbeat voice."

Interviews that take place over a meal are also designed to get to know candidates in a more informal environment. And here, the little things can matter, Chinsky Matuson says.

"Hiring managers are noting whether or not candidates have good table manners and if they are smart enough to pass on the glass of wine offered," she says.

Behavioral interviewing also helps ferret out more values-based information, she says, noting that the more details asked for, the more confident interviewers can be that the behaviors described are "real."

Rhoades recommends against group interviews, saying that one-on-one interviews "will get you more data than a panel interview." That's because "three people on a panel will all get the same answers at the same time three different interviewers may get different answers."

And when a candidate is embellishing or making up details, inconsistencies are more likely to turn up when the candidate has to relate his or her story again and again.

She also suggests having peers participate in the interview process. "Peer-to-peer conversations will uncover things," Rhoades says, noting one case at JetBlue, in which "a grandmother told us not to hire her grandson."

Peers are often more discriminating in their choice of colleagues because they want to choose someone they will enjoy working with -- both from a values and competency standpoint, she says.

It's important, however, she says, to use peer interviewers who are "A" employees, not "C" employees. "If you get C-players involved in the hiring process, you'll find that you're hiring more C-players," she says.

Customers can provide useful insights as well.

"At Southwest we had customers come in who were loyal flyers and help us hire flight attendants," she says, adding that she's transferred that technique to hospitals, where patients have been asked to be involved in the hiring process.

These creative techniques are not universally in favor.

Kurt Weyerhauser, managing partner at Kensington Stone, an executive search firm based in Los Angeles, says such practices can be counterproductive and serve to repel, rather than attract, candidates.

"Some practices concern me because I sense that people who actually fit the organization in terms of ability, culture and style are turned off by a quirky hiring practice that doesn't reflect the true environment within the hiring organization."

But, he notes: "If hiring practices match the style and culture of a company, candidates who fit the environment will see the hiring practice as resonating with them."

And, Chinksy Matuson adds, while such approaches may result in more information about candidates than might have been attained through an interview, "the cons are that this information might be skewed."

For HR professionals interested in taking a first step in this direction, an easy starting point is seeking input from the receptionist, experts say.