Form interview teams
While Satcher says it’s his job as theleader to paint the picture of what theideal candidate is for a position, hewants a lot of input from his organization on the candidates being interviewed.
He wants the candidate to interviewwith an array of people in the organization in order to get a broad perspective.
“Those people could be peers of theposition, they could be people reportingto the position, or they could be peoplethe position reports to. In someinstances, I’ve even used physicians aspart of the interview team.”
Satcher says he is always amazed atcandidates who interview differently infront of different groups. If they areinterviewing with their peers, they maycarry themselves one way and then actcompletely different when they interview with the people that report to them.
“You can really pick up on some (disingenuous) personalities and managementstyles through that process,” he says.“That’s probably the most critical thing Ilook for.
“It’s a phenomenal process, and you getcandidates who will tell one group onething and they’ll tell another groupanother. You think there’s no way anyone would be dumb enough to do that,but they do.”
One way to find solid performers tomake up your interview team is to simply look at the best areas in yourorganization.
“I look at departments that don’t havehigh turnover,” he says. “Those are probably the directors I want interviewingmy people. I don’t necessarily want thedepartment director that is having trouble with turnover or who’s had a historyof selection issues.”
If Satcher wants someone to be on aninterview team, he makes sure that person knows what is expected of him orher and what he or she should be lookingfor before the person joins the team.That comes back to painting the pictureof the ideal candidate before starting theselection process.
“You can’t just turn people loose without any type of direction,” he says.
While you may have assembled a solidinterview team that you are comfortablewith, you have to stress that the teamneeds to be just as comfortable with you.That’s why you have to be clear whencommunicating with everyone you wanton your interview team.
Satcher emphasizes he wants an individual’s honest feedback if he or she isgoing to take part and that any feedbackSatcher receives about a job candidatewill remain confidential.
“So, when I have a candidate, I first ofall ask, ‘Are you willing to do this? Willyou commit the time to do this? Second,are you comfortable in giving me yourfeedback? Thirdly, here’s what I want inthis person. Here’s what the picturelooks like and this is what I need youassessing these individuals against,’” hesays. “‘This isn’t an open-ended search,guys. This is a search looking for a particular set of skills, a particular personality, a particular fit, and I need you towork from the same framework that Iam working from.’”
It also can be beneficial to have a couple of people on the team who will goagainst the grain and will challenge thenorm.
“I’ve got a couple directors that othersmight consider to be a little contrarian,but I kind of like that,” he says. “They’renot going to get caught up in groupthinkor mob rule.”
Even though Satcher doesn’t participate in all parts of the interview process,he will have someone he trusts in theroom.
“In every organization, there’s what Iwill call your go-to people,” he says.“These are the people when you’ve gotsomething you need done, you can give
it to them (and) you know they are going to get it done,” hesays. “Typically, all my go-to people are on my interviewteams.”
You can even take this process one step further and team upa rising star with one of your go-to people.
“If I have someone that, say maybe, I think has the potentialto develop to that level, I try to pair them up with a go-to person,” he says. “So, what I try to do is I try to make sure whenthe schedules are set, I know I’ve got at least one of those goto people in that room. So, if I’ve got somebody in that room[who] I may not know quite as well but I feel good about, I doknow that I have at least somebody in there that is going toexhibit the kind of behavior I want the other people to see.”
