Nov 3 2022

The interview process in a typical organization goes like this :

1. Manager contacts the candidate for the initial get-to-know meeting
2. An employee takes the technical or 2^nd round of interview
3. On positive feedback from the above 2 rounds, the candidate is invited for an interview with the HR to check the soft-skills of the candidate.

If the candidate clears all the rounds and joins the company, and later the team realizes that he is not exactly a “team player” and does not have “hands-on” experience with the daily work, the entire team and organization may suffer due to this “wrong hire”.

One method to avoid this is an Interview method called “Team Staffing”, wherein the team is actually in-charge of the hiring process. The process is as follows:

1. A representative of the team screens the candidate applications and matches it with the requirements of his team. Hence, multiple team representatives can screen the same candidate for a suitable fit in their respective teams. This also avoids the typical dialogue “I do not have a match for you in my team, but I will forward your resume to other teams”. This reduces the time taken for the screening, as good candidates do not stay in the open job market for long.
2. The team representative organizes an initial call with the candidate to understand his skills better.
3. On positive feedback, the representative discusses it with his team.
4. The candidate is then invited for a “Team interview” in the office, where the team shows the candidate what they work on, interact with the candidate and give him mock sample tasks.
5. If the team and the candidate respond positively, the HR is invited for the final discussion.

The above “Team Staffing” method reduces the responsibility of the “Hiring Manager” and hands it over to the team. The team is responsible to choose who they want to work with in the future, which in turn boosts the team morale and  sense of responsibility and accountability.

Harikumar Venkatesh, Mercedes-AMG GmbH, Germany