This cast describes how to decide between two good candidates in a hiring situation.

We're NOT going to tell everyone who's trying to decide between two candidates whom they should pick. What we are going to do with this cast is tell you what factors are most effective in determining whom to hire, as well as walking you through a simple process for the decision.

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This cast describes what to do when a manager has two candidates for a job that meet the standard, but you can only offer one candidate.

Note: During the show, we refer to an older podcast on How to Make an Offer that you may find of value as well.

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This cast describes how to interview effectively during a downturn, particularly for difficult to fill positions.

When you get to fill a position during a down market, it usually means it's a critical position, and/or one that's been open a long time. Because you're in a buyer's market, it's usually pretty easy to find a good, even an exceptional, candidate. But you have to change how you interview in that situation, and here's how.

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[Note: This is a repost of a previous corrupt podcast file.]

This cast describes how to increase your chances of re-hiring someone who has left your organization. They're called Boomerangs!

There really IS a war for talent going on today. Demographics are in many ways working against us, reducing the labor pool, as well as changing the nature of work and the relationships "employees" have with their "employers".

This cast describes how to create a simple behavioral interview question.

This cast explains how to capture interview results in a fast and simple meeting.

One of the things we have learned over the years is that bad hiring is easy, and good hiring is hard. It's easy to hire someone who isn't going to work out – just do one interview, don't dig for details, don't listen to the doubts you're feeling, don't interview for the soft skills.

Of course, this is what happens far too often...and then when there are culture or discipline problems, everyone starts talking about changing the culture, or doing exit interviews.

More and more, companies are using psychological and behavioral tests as pre-employment screening devices. They supplement their interviewing processes in order to ensure less false-positives.This is wise, in our judgment, based on what we see of interviewing. Too many companies don't screen rigorously enough, and have started enlisting more cerebral and/or technical techniques to be certain of new hires.

Even if you haven't experienced one yet, it's becoming more and more likely.

What does this mean for you?

Interviewing candidates for your organization is one of the most important things managers do. And yet, somehow, it's one of those things that doesn't seem to get taught anywhere. What this means is very few managers know how, or at least, they just do it "their way". That's not a very effective approach for an organization to have regarding the key talent screening process that it has, but the data are overwhelming: Your interviews stink! Most managers simply don't have a good way to always ensure that they are conducting an effective interview. Some managers routinely create false positives with shallow questions, little probing, and a lack of understanding about the role. Other managers routinely create false negatives...and usually, for the very same reasons on the surface. Conducting Effective Interviews is too big a topic to cover all at once..unless you wanted a 30 hour cast! So, in this cast, we'll talk about the steps effective managers take to get ready for an interview.
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During this cast, we complete our series on making a job offer to a candidate. If you haven't listened to last week's cast (part 1), please do so first!

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This cast explains a simple way to make a job offer to a candidate.

If you're a manager, you've got people working for you. If you have people working for you, you're going to either lose some, or your team is going to grow. That creates an opening, which, if you're lucky, you'll get to fill. And that means interviewing, and hiring someone.

While we think it's funny (and sad) that so many managers don't like the hiring process, it seems silly to punish ourselves by not knowing how to do it.