Effective Interview Engagement

Increasing employee engagement investments by 10 percent can increase company profits by $2,400 per employee per year. With this information in mind, it’s clear why effective interview engagement matters throughout each point in the hiring cycle is critical.

SCENARIO

A bright, young, talented job candidate comes to an office for a job interview. During the interview, she meets with the employees who would be her immediate team members and supervisors, and she makes genuine connections. 

Everyone seems to feel positively about the interview process. Finally, it is time to meet with the CEO. She is unapologetically late, self-centered and keeps responding to messages on her phone during the interaction. In other words, the CEO fails to model effective interview engagement or answer her questions.

TAKEAWAYS

• Teamwork is always important, and particularly so in the context of recruiting and hiring great talent. The CEO failed to contribute positively to her employees’ hiring process and in fact left a negative last impression on the candidate.

• Technology is a wonderful thing; however, it can be distracting. Do not make the people in front of you feel like they are not a priority by constantly texting or emailing someone elsewhere. This impacts engagement for everyone.

• The Employee Promise of The Ritz-Carlton states, “we nurture and maximize talent to the benefit of each individual and the company.” As the senior leader, the CEO missed a huge opportunity to show engagement in the young employee and show her how she could grow with her company.

If you were this employee, would you take the job even if the offer was good? 

• employee engagement
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• leadership
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• talent acquisition