Keeping it Real: Providing a Realistic Job Preview
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You are ready to start interviews for your open Administrative Assistant position. As you prepare to show off your workplace, you quickly do the rounds and make sure everyone is on their best behavior. You hide the back up of filing away in a closet and you quickly clear the buried desk the potential new assistant will use. As you tell the applicants about the opportunity, you brush off questions about the overtime work necessary and the workload the new hire will encounter. Don't want to scare them off, right?
Wrong. While telling a few white lies and hiding the real challenge of a new position may ensure that someone accepts a position that you see as less than attractive, doing so will likely lead that person to quit more quickly than you can write a new job advertisement.
Painting an accurate picture of the job during the interview process will help you retain the new worker you worked so hard to find. In the HR world, we call it the Realistic Job Preview (RJP). The more honestly you portray the job, the more likely the new hire will stay once hired. People understand that all jobs have downsides. If you wait until someone's first day on the job to reveal the bad news, the new employee will feel misled and your employment relationship will start off on the wrong foot. As the going gets worse, the employee will more likely leave.
On the flip side, if you do a good job informing potential employees about the reality of the new job, the employee will start off knowing what is expected and a slight difficulty will not send him or her running to the door.
However, the interview process should not become a miserable experience for the applicant. Rather, make sure you provide a realistic and balanced view of the job that lies ahead. Sell the applicants on the company, the opportunity and all of the positives of taking on the new job. But, let them know some of the challenges they will face as they take on their new responsibilities. Remember that the selection process is a two-way street. You want to find the best candidate and the candidate wants to find the right job opportunity.
While the steps you take may differ based upon your business, here are a few tips to ensure your interview process provides a RJP:
· Give a tour of the facility during the interview process. Include a stop at the potential employee's planned workspace.
· Allow the applicant to meet with co-workers. Set them up in a conference room to give them a chance to talk about the job and the company without the hiring manager in the room.
· Give the applicant written materials about the company to take home. Provide your employee manual and a list of the benefits you offer. Include a written job description that clearly explains the job and your expectations of the new hire.
· Allow plenty of time for questions during the interview process.
· Allow the applicant to sit in and observe a co-worker for part of a day.
Basically, you need to take time to think through the interviewing process from the applicant’s perspective. If you were applying for the job, what would you want to know? Providing a RJP will take extra time and effort. But a new employee that knows what to expect will not be quickly disappointed with the new job. The extra effort up front will pay off as you see turnover reduced.
