At big family Christmases, we used to always have a 5000 piece jigsaw on the go. Some of us would start with the edge pieces, others looked for the red piece and then tried to find other pieces which would help create the distinctive lumps of picture around which the rest of the puzzle would be made.
Vocational selection is like building a jigsaw. Selectors need enough of the picture to be reasonable confident that the candidate is both called and competent enough to be recommended for training or for the post. That picture might be drawn up through application forms, references, exercises and interviews. At the final interviews there is a finite amount of time for interviewers to talk with candidates. In our experience, the process needs to pay particular attention to:
The red piece:
Sometimes a candidate will come with major milestones in their journey. Whether it's addiction, broken relationships, abuse, health or something else, the selection process must pay attention to ensuring that the rest of that candidate's story gets a hearing. That's more tricky than it sounds. Often your interviewers are pastoral and once you touch on a story the place becomes holy ground and you spend time listening. In a 45 minute interview, 10 minutes on that red piece story means you are only left with 35 minutes to collect all the other evidence you need about the surrounding picture. Equally some candidates chose to retell one piece of their story.
These issues need to be explored within the process. They do not need to be explored in every interview. Interviewers need to be clear what not to explore, and equally to move a candidate away from talking about something which has been explored in another interview. If you don't do this, at the wash up meeting you'll know little more about the puzzle than that there is a red piece.
A different puzzle:
Selection and discernment is two way. As we explore with candidates the pieces of their puzzle, selectors begin to discern whether those pieces are part of the picture that fits the role for which they are interviewing. And the candidate can discern whether it is in fact another picture. Only by exploring well will you both find whether the red piece is a jacket from a huntsman in a landscape. Or the red smartie in a puzzle of sweets! And a skilled interviewer will raise that with the candidate during their conversation.
Where do you begin? The empty table or the half completed puzzle:
We believe that the way interviewers approach the selection day/s is critical. At the end of the process, you will meet with others to decide whether this candidate is called and competent enough. Are you clear enough what that means? Of course it will not be rigid but you do need some clarity so that you can see how far someone is from that and then make an informed decision.
When you start early in the candidates story (the empty table), there is no certainty that you will have enough data by the wash up meeting. A higher level question is to ask, before you start:
What do we need to know by the end of the process to make an informed decision?
How complete a picture is complete enough?
And therefore where do we start and what do we need to explore?
These questions will be evidence based:
Tell me how you give back in your community?
In what ways are you growing people?
Notice that some will be about competency and some will actually not be specific to the candidate. They will be groundrules that the organisation needs to set together. Otherwise you risk that different interviewers will make very different recommendations.
Who owns the puzzle?
Over the years we have noticed a risk in vocational selection that we want the best for the candidate and therefore the organisation may take unnecessary risk by recommending a candidate too early. If there is a clear gap between the candidate here and now, and being called and competent enough, be very clear who owns that risk. Do you recommend and address it in training? Or do you ask the candidate to carry the risk and return when they have developed in that area?
When Saturdays are spent in such worthwhile activity no-one begrudges the time!
Delegate
We have almost 25 years experience of vocational selection and discernment. Talk to us about how we can help you be really clear what your process is for, and how we can work with you to train your selectors.
At big family Christmases, we used to always have a 5000 piece jigsaw on the go. Some of us would start with the edge pieces, others looked for the red piece and then tried to find other pieces which would help create the distinctive lumps of picture around which the rest of the puzzle would be made.
Sometimes a candidate will come with major milestones in their journey. Whether it's addiction, broken relationships, abuse, health or something else, the selection process must pay attention to ensuring that the rest of that candidate's story gets a hearing. That's more tricky than it sounds. Often your interviewers are pastoral and once you touch on a story the place becomes holy ground and you spend time listening. In a 45 minute interview, 10 minutes on that red piece story means you are only left with 35 minutes to collect all the other evidence you need about the surrounding picture. Equally some candidates chose to retell one piece of their story.
Selection and discernment is two way. As we explore with candidates the pieces of their puzzle, selectors begin to discern whether those pieces are part of the picture that fits the role for which they are interviewing. And the candidate can discern whether it is in fact another picture. Only by exploring well will you both find whether the red piece is a jacket from a huntsman in a landscape. Or the red smartie in a puzzle of sweets! And a skilled interviewer will raise that with the candidate during their conversation.
We believe that the way interviewers approach the selection day/s is critical. At the end of the process, you will meet with others to decide whether this candidate is called and competent enough. Are you clear enough what that means? Of course it will not be rigid but you do need some clarity so that you can see how far someone is from that and then make an informed decision.