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Assessing Personnel Needs
Advanced-Beyond Job Descriptions: Job Matching for Real Estate Sales
Recruitment Planning
Advanced: What Top Performers Want from You
Recruiting Salespeople
Advanced: Tips for Recruiting the Seasoned Professional
Recruiting Support Personnel
Advanced: The Family and Medical Leave Act
The Interviewing Process
Advanced: Behavioral Interviewing
Tips for Selecting a Psychological Test
Structuring Compensation
Advanced: Compensation Tips for Management Personnel | | Tips for Conducting a Better Interview
Make interviews more productive with these techniques.
- Write out your questions ahead of time, so you won't forget to ask an important question.
TIP: Avoid questions that allow for a "yes" or "no" response. Wendi Grba, Brinker & Associates, in Real Estate Today, September/October 1986.
- Take notes of responses so that you can remember information later.
- Give all candidates a written job description and let them review it before you begin.
- Ask all candidates to complete a standard job application.
TIP: Even if candidates offer a resume, ask them to fill out a job application to demonstrate that all candidates were asked the same questions.
- Conduct the interview behind closed doors and without interruptions.
- Use a conversational seating arrangement, such as a conference table, to create a friendly atmosphere.
- Give an overview of your company and its goals.
- Sell the position by pointing out what your company has to offer.
- Allow sufficient time for the interview (30 to 45 minutes).
- Encourage participants to ask questions and answer honestly. You should spend about 80 percent of the interview listening during an interview.
Interviewing Mistakes to Avoid
Carole Johnson, president of Schaumburg, Ill.-based Recruiting Network, an online recruiting network, offers suggestions on what not to do when interviewing candidates.
Q: What are some of the mistakes interviewers make when hiring new associates?
Johnson: One big thing I see happening in the real estate industry is that companies aren't training managers in proper hiring procedures. If you have 30-office company and everyone asks different questions—and they haven't been trained by a human resources department or lawyer about correct questions, procedures, and creative a paper trail—you're leaving yourself open to potential discrimination lawsuits. One way to help standardize interviewing is to have the company create a standard set of basic questions that every candidate should be asked. You can even create an intranet site so that managers can type in candidates responses to these questions. In this way, you go back to and see who you interviewed, what was asked, the candidate's response, and the reasons the person wasn't hired. In this way, you maintain certain hiring standards and help ensure you treat candidates the same regardless of race, age, and so forth. The intranet site helps create a paper trail and demonstrates that you have legally defensible procedures in place.
Q: What else can companies do to promote better hiring?
Johnson: Brokerages can focus on hiring the best people, not just on keeping the body count up. A lot of companies place pressure on managers to meet hiring goals—say two salespeople per month—but don't keep track of whether these volume recruits really produced or just fell by the wayside. That is, they don't say, of those you recruited this year, how many reached their production goals? They're not recruiting to add to profits, but to fill chairs. Your company can run a great recruiting machine, but if you're not emphasizing quality hiring in your interviewing and selecting, you're wasting time and money.
Q: What type of advertising is most effective at attracting the best candidates?
Johnson: Some ads pull a thousand calls each time they run, but bring in people who aren't likely candidates. This just bogs the manager down with bad interviews. It's very helpful to use language in your recruitment ads that will attract the types of candidates you want. A small company may want to emphasize its friendliness or the chance to work directly with the owner, for example.
Your ads should spell out the skills and experience that you're looking for. Several of our clients have had success putting in realistic earning figures to help applicants understand how much they might earn. And, of course, be sure to make it clear if you are not offering a salary or benefits. Also, try to word the ad so that it reflects your company's values and climate.
Q: How do you conduct interviews to recognize the best candidates?
Johnson: You need to know what you're looking for and how you recognize it. Take some courses in personality dynamism so you know what personality types you're looking for and which ones will respond best to your company's leadership style. It also helps to listen for red flags during your interviewing—if people are wishy-washy about when they can start or if they spend all their time asking you what you can do for them, they probably aren't going to be very productive associates.
10 Questions to Ask in the First Interview> | |
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