Gauging the talents of in-person candidates requires skill and experience, but qualifying that same talent remotely poses particular challenges of its own.

Telecommuting has been on the rise since the early 2000s with SHRM reporting that 68 percent of companies now offer remote work options, up from 54 percent in 2014.

So, what do we know about the remote worker? The New York Times (NYT) helps us answer this question (though they themselves acknowledge the definition is somewhat nebulous)…

“The most complete definition is someone employed full time at a private, nonprofit or government organization, who works at least half the time at home.

“The typical telecommuter is a 49-year-old college graduate — man or woman — who earns about $58,000 a year and belongs to a company with more than 100 employees, according to numbers culled from the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey.“

Remote work/ telecommuting options can save companies money (the same NYT article found that the US federal government saved an estimated $32 million by asking their employees to work from home on snow days). And, numerous studies have shown remote workers are more productive and work longer hours.

With more and more companies seeing telecommuting as a viable option for their employees, it follows that remote interviewing will increase in popularity as well – from initial phone screens to online technical skills tests.

For many, the idea of remote interviewing can be daunting, as it’s common to rely on in-person meetings to get ‘a sense’ of a candidate. To surmount these initial growing pains, the following provides top tips for recruiters and hiring managers looking to win at remote interviewing.

1. Find the best ways to connect.

During an interview, so much is determined by body language, which isn’t something that always translates over a screen. A survey from Twin found that 50 percent of interviewers eliminate candidates based on the way they dressed, behaved, or expressed their body language.

That’s why it’s important to try to find communication solutions that will best replicate the benefits of in-person interactions (while also remembering judgments based on appearance and clothing could be biased so it’s good to eliminate that criterion from the application process). To do this, try using different communication tools for the various stages of the interview process, such as an audio tool for the preliminary screening and a video conferencing option during later rounds.

While there are plenty of business tools that perform one of these tasks well, implementing a unified communications system will ensure an organized approach when communicating between multiple candidates.

2. Prep the tech.

Delays caused by technical difficulties can completely disrupt a scheduled day of remote interviews, at times with costly consequences. Within the span of a year, a single employee can spend 91 hours, or over two work weeks, of their time fixing computer issues.

Technology snafus can make a company appear unprofessional and will ultimately decrease the time recruiters and hiring managers have to evaluate each candidate. Prepare in advance for a day of remote interviews by asking the following questions:

• Does this room have a strong internet connection/cellular reception?
• Is all of the necessary equipment plugged in and turned on?
• Does the candidate have the interview information, including time, date, and links?

3. Choose the team wisely.

A re:Work study found that having three interviewers in the room led to hiring the best talent 63 percent of the time, while a team of seven would increase hiring success to 72 percent.

Having multiple perspectives of a single candidate is typically a good thing, but when interviewing remote applicants, streamlining an interview team to a smaller group will help reduce interruptions and simplify communication.

Phone calls or video conferences should include only the core team necessary to make the decision.

If the team can’t be winnowed down, assign roles to each person, including which team members should be speaking and which are responsible for silently observing and notetaking.

4. Become an effective listener.

In-person interviews offer plenty of opportunities to demonstrate active listening, from securing eye contact to head nods. Since 93 percent of all communication is nonverbal, these tiny cues are essential for establishing an understanding between interviewer and interviewee.

During a remote interview, it may be difficult, or in the case of a phone call impossible, to represent any of the visual cues that show listening. Fortunately, there are other ways to show active listening…

• Looking into the camera as a way to replicate eye contact.
• Eliminating outside noises that may interfere with the interview.
• Waiting a few additional seconds for a response before speaking accommodates the time the interviewee needs to think of a response and compensates for any lag time or delays in the signal.

Don’t forget to share with your own remote interview hacks! #HiringSuccess

More than half of all candidates have major fears about the job hunt, learn the specific pain points and how recruiters can help.

In a recent study of 1,000 working professionals, CV library found that 55 percent are scared of key elements of the job hunt.

While seeking new employment may always entail some level of pressure and anxiety, hiring teams can boost the candidate experience and better evaluate applicants by identifying common pain points and doing their best to alleviate unnecessary tension.

To help you out, this article will reveal the five most stressful parts of the recruitment process, with simple tips for making candidates feel at ease to perform their best.

1) Being rejected…

For over half of those surveyed (55 percent), being rejected for a job they really wanted is what scares them the most. Of course, no one likes rejection, especially if they were excited about working for you. But, it’s sadly part of the hiring game.

As a recruitment professional, you should be well adept at letting people know whether they were successful or not with a professional rejection letter. If it’s the latter, make sure you always give constructive feedback, so your candidate can learn from the experience.

What’s more, doing so ensures that they’re left with a positive view of you and your company, helping to boost your employer brand at the same time.

2) Attending interviews…

Our research found that 42 percent of professionals fear attending interviews. Again, this is only natural. Yet, it’s still important to keep this fact in mind. After all, someone who appears extremely nervous at an interview may not be showing their full potential.

Help your candidates feel at ease by giving them as much information before the interview as possible. Make sure it’s clear where they need to go, who they’re meeting with, and what they need to wear and bring.

On the day of the interview, welcome them into your workplace and offer them a hot or cold drink. Anything you can do to make them feel comfortable will ensure that the interview is as productive as possible.

3) Completing an interview test or task…

In addition to the above, a further four in 10 (40 percent) worry about having to complete a test or task during an interview.

However, don’t let this put you off having this as a requirement. For some jobs, you need to understand your candidate’s skills through practical tests during the interview.

Just be sure to not make the task too esoteric. Ask yourself if it’s reasonable for a person to be able to perform this task before having worked at your company as you don’t want to put them off or make them question their abilities.

4) Speaking to recruiters on the phone…

Interestingly, we found that one-third (35 percent) of job hunters worry about having to speak to recruiters on the phone. So, be conscious of this when you’re calling candidates.

It might sound silly, especially as you call different people every day as part of your job, but some individuals find speaking to potential employers daunting.

Again, make them feel at ease by giving them a good overview of the role and don’t go in with any hard-hitting questions too early on.

If you get the sense that they’re nervous or don’t want to talk right now, suggest that you call back and conduct a phone interview at a time that’s more suitable for them.

5) Video interviews…

Finally, we found that a further 34 percent are scared of video interviews. But don’t let this put you off organizing them! There are many benefits of video interviews and they’re great for speeding up your recruitment process.

Instead, reassure candidates that this is a great opportunity for each party to find out more about one another, before coming in and meeting face to face.

Make sure they understand how to use the technology and remind them that the format will be just the same as a normal interview.

***

Overall, it’s clear that there’s a number of elements that could be holding candidates back during the recruitment process. As a hiring professional, it’s your job to make these individuals feel at ease, especially if you want to find the best talent for your roles.

Follow our advice above and take these insights on board, and you’ll stand a better chance of boosting your hiring efforts.

We’ve cringed over some of the most gut-wrenching depictions of interviews gone wrong. Now we’re tackling the best-case scenario, and addressing four things recruiters can do to create the smoothest possible interview process.

Interviews are a recruiter’s bread and butter, but conduct enough of them and the shine wears away to expose a mundane and repetitive process. And that has a direct effect on a recruiter’s ability to fill positions. A recent survey found that 83 percent of candidates felt a poorly conducted interview can change their opinion of a role. Conversely, 87 percent of candidates said a positive interview experience could sway their opinion towards accepting a job.

To place the best candidate in the right role, recruiters rely on insights and information gained from the interview process, so a positive experience should be top priority. Here are four ways that recruiters can conduct a more efficient interview.

1. Do the Homework

It’s no secret that recruiters manage extremely busy schedules, but preparing for an interview should be the recruiter’s main focus, especially with the expectation that candidates will conduct their own research before coming in. Proper interview preparation includes:

• Having a clear understanding of the position, its responsibilities, and where the role fits in the larger team structure.
• Gathering a set of open-ended interview questions.
• Reviewing the candidate’s documents and credentials—resume, LinkedIn profile, cover letter, application.
• Preparing for candidate questions about the role—financial compensation, metrics for success, and expectations.
• Providing an assignment, assessment, or task for after the interview (if applicable).
• Knowing the next steps to advance the candidate to the next stage of the hiring process.

2. Ask the Right Questions

Questions asked during an interview should reveal information about the candidate’s experience, their motivation for applying, and what skills they offer. Open-ended enquiries that allow for creative responses are the best way to discover what recruiters and hiring managers are looking for. Examples of good open-ended questions are:

• What made you decide to apply for this job?
• Where have you interviewed recently? What opportunities have you had?
• Why did you leave your last job?
• Can you describe your most significant career accomplishment?
• What duties or responsibilities do you want more of in your next role?

The role may also influence the types of questions being asked. When hiring for entry-level jobs, hiring managers often have to read between the lines and evaluate a candidate’s potential based on limited work experience and how they present themselves in the interview process.

3. Have a Positive Attitude and Be Engaged

For many candidates, a recruiter may be their first interaction with a company, so it’s crucial to foster a positive experience for the candidate. Recruiters should be passionate about their company, the role they are hiring for, and the interview process. Demonstrating a professional and enthusiastic attitude will calm nervous candidates and allow for a more meaningful exchange.

Actively listening to a candidate’s responses and asking thoughtful follow-up questions demonstrate a recruiter’s attentiveness, and reflect positively on the company. As an ambassador, it falls on the recruiter to convey the company’s principles, employer brand, Employee Value Proposition, and other unique values.

4. Follow Up and Provide Feedback

Candidates value transparency in the hiring process, so creating a feedback loop that informs them of their status after the interview greatly contributes to the candidate experience. If possible, recruiters should offer candidates feedback on their interview, regardless of whether they will advance to the next stage. Maintaining communication means that when it comes time to extend a job offer, the candidate is more likely to accept, and faster, because of this rapport.

The most important job interview question is, “When have you failed? Tell me about it.” The answer shows how one portrays their self to others, and what it’ll be like to work together. A job seeker can answer this question in one of three ways:

(1) beat around the bush, working the conversation to another topic,

(2) tell you story of how one almost failed but overcame it,

or (3) tell you a story of how one – for a reason or another – has failed before.

The world of work will not go as predictions of production indicate. It took me about 10-15 interviews with job seekers to learn that this is the most important question to ask a job candidate. Let’s examine the possibilities of how you can navigate this awkward question.

Failure 1

If the candidates beats around the bush and is unable tell you of a professional failure, you have learned that the candidate is one of the following:

(1) uncomfortable with the transparency of admitting failure (which may lead to an unwillingness to own up to mistakes committed in your company)

(2) in disbelief of failure’s existence,

(3) incapable of demonstrating the ability to explain the learnings from his or her failures in a traditional manner (Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.);

or maybe, (4) one has never truly failed before.

This answer does not necessarily mean you should not hire this person. You have learned of their mindset, and there is a job for every mindset. Maybe they are too shy to admit a mistake in a job interview? Or did the candidate seamlessly redirect the conversation to another relevant topic? If so, the candidate has demonstrated tremendous skill and character flaw in the same maneuver. No one is perfect. Many jobs favor the ability to communicate without admitting mistakes.

Failure 2

If the candidate tells you a story of how one almost failed but overcame it, you have learned that the candidate is one of the following:

(1) portrayer of the world in a permanently positive view (possibly doesn’t believe in failure),

(2) still not fully comfortable with the transparency of admitting failure but willing to meet you halfway (possibly doesn’t believe in failure; results! Why, man I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won’t work.),

(3) able to explain how one solved whatever difficulty of problem the example described;

or maybe, (4) one has never truly failed before (possibly does not believe in failure; if we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment).

Don’t underestimate the impact positivity can have on persistence and collaboration. Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough. Ask yourself, why did the job seeker choose to tell me this specific failure? Pay close attention to how one solved the problem, turning the failure into a success, so to speak. Hire this person if their example is the type of problem solving the position demands.

See also:

• 10 Most Common Illegal Interview Questions
• Identifying the 10 Soft Skills of a Great Intern
• How to Interview Someone in the HR Industry

Failure 3

If the candidate tells you a story of how one – for a reason or another –  has failed before, you have learned that the candidate can:

(1) talk about a time when one has failed, and call it failure,

(2) talk about a time when one has failed, call it failure, and explain what one learned to become a better worker (failure is success if we learn from it.)

(3) talk about a time when one has failed and blame someone else for the failure;

or maybe, (4) the candidate has never failed before and is lying (the only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.)

This may be the most candid answer of a well rounded human being, but it is not necessarily the right hire for every position. Will this candidate detail the wrong failure to an important client, partner or reporter? That question can only be answered by their body of work and the rest of the interview. To tell a true story of failing in a job interview is to understand that failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. I like working with these people, on most projects. However, many issues involve multiple people, and I see a red flag if the job seeker blames the majority of the failure on another person.  

________________________________________________________________________________

Everyday, learning from failures changes how I share input in the hiring process. As always, I learned from that to write this. I like to work hands on with people who answer with a story of almost failing but overcoming it, or a story of how one – for a reason or another – has truly failed before, but that’s just me, and I also understand the value in hiring a person who beats around the bush, working his or her way to a topic that isn’t “failure.”

I failed yesterday. And the day before that. And who knows maybe it’s a failure to say the most important job interview question is …

Tell me about a time you failed

David Smooke fails everyday.

You may want to skip lunch before your next job interview.

Hungry people often feel like they deserve more than their peers, according to a new study by two researchers from Cornell University and Dartmouth College. That sense of entitlement could translate to the added chutzpah needed to convince a potential employer or boss to give you what you want, the researchers found.

“There are definitely situations where a little entitlement can be good,” Emily Zitek, assistant professor at Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and co-author the study, told The Huffington Post. “If being hungry is a good way for someone to be entitled, as the surveys showed, they can maybe skip lunch or skip breakfast or something.”

Perhaps this guy wolfed down a big meal before his job interview.

The researchers conducted two experiments using the same survey, which asked undergraduate students to agree or disagree on a scale of 1 to 7 with statements such as: “I honestly feel more deserving than others,” and “Things should go my way.” They were also asked to rank their hunger on the same 1-to-7 scale.

In the first experiment, they surveyed 103 students passing into and out of a campus dining hall, and the students to fill out an optional questionnaire of information on the back of the survey as a further judge of their generosity with time.

In the second experiment, they surveyed one group of participants who said they enjoyed pizza in a lab filled with the aroma of a frozen pie cooking in a nearby toaster oven. For comparison, a second group was surveyed in a lab without pizza.

In both instances, hungrier participants reported feeling more entitled and were more likely to refuse to help the researcher by answering the extra questions.

Feeling more deserving could boost a worker’s confidence when interviewing for a job or negotiating a salary, but Zitek warned that a growling stomach could intensify someone’s personality too much.

“If they’re too extreme, they could give a bad impression to the person who’s interviewing them,” she said. “You need to feel deserving, but if you’re over-the-top, the person who’s doing the interviewing may not like you.”

Zitek’s research cited earlier studies that found feeling more deserving could make you abrasive to co-workers and difficult to manage.

But a sense of privilege may have other benefits. Zitek is currently working on two more studies, which show that heightened entitlement correlates with personal creativity and with more successful negotiations.

“Entitlement leads to higher aspirations in negotiations,” she said of the preliminary findings of a new study with two Vanderbilt University researchers. “And higher aspirations can lead to higher outcomes.”

This article was written by Alexander C. Kaufman from the Huffington Post and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Learn more about SmartRecruiters, your workspace to find and hire great people.

I was intrigued last week when I received the results of a survey from the giant Menlo Park-based staffing agency Robert Half, saying that more than three quarters of hiring managers think it’s appropriate for job candidates to ask about compensation and benefits in the initial phone screening or first two job interviews. I’ve written at least three stories saying it’s best for job seekers to put off salary negotiations until an offer is on the table. Was I wrong?

Paul McDonald, a senior executive director at Robert Half, says, “In this market, with 1% or 2% unemployment for some jobs, employers want to get to this business quickly. They want to see if there’s a good fit and they’re OK with the candidate bringing up the salary in order to be efficient with time.” Conversely, he says, applicants should be ready to answer questions about salary early in the process. “We believe honesty is the best policy,” he says.” If someone asks what has been your salary in the past three positions, we coach the applicant to be prepared for that.” The firm surveyed 300 hiring managers by phone in December 2013.

Has something changed in salary negotiation strategy since I first wrote about the topic two years ago? To answer that question I turned to three of my best career coach sources and to Heidi Ellingson, senior director of employment services at Middleton, WI-based Spectrum Brands, a diversified consumer products company with 13,500 employees worldwide, which makes everything from Rayovac batteries to George Foreman grills. She doesn’t recommend that candidates bring up the subject but instead she has her own staff raise salary in the very first phone screening. “We want to make sure we’re in the right ballpark,” she says. Frequently candidates don’t want to reveal either their salary or what they hope to earn, in which case Ellison’s team tries at least to get a range. “We don’t want to waste people’s time if we’re $20,000 apart,” she says.

Have I been giving my readers bad advice? In a word, no. The job of staffing firms like Robert Half is to screen candidates for employers so they can present the most viable candidates, and hiring managers have an incentive to get candidates to name a number early in the process. But from the candidate’s perspective, especially if you are negotiating for a managerial or executive position, it’s best to avoid saying anything specific about salary until a job offer is on the table.

“It’s like saying on a first date, ‘how many kids do you want,’” says Roy Cohen, a longtime coach and author of The Wall Street Professional’s Survival Guide. Sarah Stamboulie, a coach who previously worked in human resources at Cantor Fitzgerald, Morgan Stanley and Nortel Networks, agrees. “You don’t want to be negotiating salary until they’re at their maximum love—their maximum enthusiasm for you,” she says. Once a prospective employer has convinced themself and their colleagues that you are their first choice, they are much more likely to bump up your package in order to get you.

Longtime coach Ellis Chase, author of The Fun Forever Job: Career Strategies that Work, agrees with Cohen and Stamboulie and lays out four reasons naming a salary is a bad idea: 1) If you come in very low, the potential employer won’t take you seriously, 2) If you come in low the employer will think they can pay you less than they had planned to offer, 3) You price yourself out of the running, and 4) Even if you fall in the right range, you may not realize that the job comes with more responsibilities than you had thought and now you’ve ruined your negotiating stance.

There are a couple of exceptions however. Stamboulie has worked with young up-and-comers at top consulting firms who have gotten multiple offers from employers who might not know the candidates want to make at least, say, $150,000. The fact that they don’t need to accept any of the offers puts them in a strong position, especially if they know they want to shoot high.

The other reason would be if you’re a superstar, you’re happy where you are and you’d only leave for a certain number. A third reason could be if you’re talking to a small startup where it’s tough to glean ahead of time what the salary range would be. Then you might want to name what Stamboulie calls an “anchor number” that will help the firm know what you think you’re worth.

What if the hiring manager or decision maker asks you what you make? That’s a tougher question. Chase says you should rarely volunteer a number and instead counter with a line like, “I’m very interested in this position but I would hate for a dollar figure to eliminate me from consideration because if there’s a fit, I’m sure we’ll be able to work it out.” If that doesn’t work, you could try, “Could you give me an idea of your range?” The goal, as I’ve written before, is to wait for the offer and then to get the decision-maker to be the first to name a number. If the hiring manager becomes visibly annoyed, says Chase, then you have to relent, but it’s always better to give a range, rather than a precise figure.

Cohen agrees. “A lot of hedge funds will bring it up. They’ll say what are you earning and what are you looking for. If you don’t give them some sort of benchmark you’ll look like you’re trying to tap dance around it.”

One of Cohen’s Wall Street trader clients can’t hold himself back. “He won’t do his homework,” says Cohen. “He’ll go into an interview and say, ‘I want to know what this job pays, I want to know the base, I want to know the formula, I want to know what cash I’ll get at the end of the year.’” According to Cohen, this candidate has blown three or four opportunities in the first interview. “When the market was stronger, they would tolerate this sort of thing,” he says. “But now he’s shooting himself in the foot.”

The folks at Robert Half may be right about the preferences of recruiters and HR managers, but it’s always best to try to bypass those gate keepers and go straight to the person who will make the ultimate decision about whether you get the job.

This article was written by Susan Adams from Forbes and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Learn more about SmartRecruiters, your workspace to find and hire great people.

In a previous Forbes post, we considered the disconcerting reality that while we find ourselves in the midst of an unemployment crisis—one characterized by highly educated candidates who are unable to find skilled work—employers from myriad industries are nevertheless reporting that they’re unable to find the talent profiles they’re really looking for. And evidence indicates that this talent gap primarily refers not to an absence of technical skills, but to an absence of “soft skills,” or what we’ll call 21^st century skills. These primarily refer to interpersonal and general analytic abilities like: teamwork, empathy, leadership, negotiation, adaptability, and problem solving.

This is highly useful information to students and educators, but employers can also learn a lot from this research about how to hire successful candidates. The problem is that 21^st century skills are very difficult to assess with any kind of rigor, especially before one can evaluate a candidate on the job. Can a candidate think innovatively? Collaborate with other team members? Assimilate feedback and coaching? Will the candidate get along with her team members and other colleagues? Will she bring personality strengths to the table that the current team might be lacking? Will the candidate be adaptable to new environments and successfully integrate with teams? It is very difficult to reduce these questions to discrete qualifications and quantifiable metrics in the same way we can assess recognized degrees and numerical grades.

Certainly some approaches exist. For example, businesses have used “type”-based personality tests for decades in attempts to measure the 21^st century skills of prospective candidates, assuming that certain personality types would correlate with high performance. One example is the Jung Typology Profiler for Workplace, which purports to measure qualities such as “Power” (leadership index), “Assurance,” “Visionary,” “Rationality,” and so forth.

The reality is that personality tests such as these have serious methodological flaws and lack the statistical reliability to predict performance among prospective employees. In fact, the makers of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a closely-related profiler that also has its origins in Jungian typology, clearly state in their ethical guidelines that “It is unethical, and in many cases illegal, to require job applicants to take the Indicator if the results will be used to screen out applicants.”

It’s clear that we need 21^st century methods to assess 21^st century skills. Unfortunately, that seemingly simple idea proves to be much trickier in practice than it is in theory.

Tools for talent development do not work for pre-employment screening

Part of the problem is that many companies are using the wrong tools for the job.   There is a fundamental difference between tools intended to develop existing teams and tools used for pre-employment selection.

While typical personality tests are poor tools for pre-employment screening, there is evidence that newer tests can help managers better develop and deploy the talent they have already hired. For example, Gallup’s StrengthsFinder 2.0 is a tool that helps individuals understand and describe their own talents, and is commonly used by managers to understand and capitalize on the strengths of those they hire. More importantly, it is methodologically sound, and its reliability and validity are backed up by clear evidence.

For example, Facebook uses StrengthsFinder in a clever way to deploy talent efficiently. Regardless of the job openings they have available, Facebook simply hires the smartest people it can find, then uses StrengthsFinder results to understand their talents and create a job tailored to the candidate.

One might naturally assume that the same type of test that helps identify and develop strengths in an existing team could also be used to assess suitable candidates for entry into that team. In the words of Gallup, “Absolutely not… A development-oriented assessment such as StrengthsFinder is markedly different from selection tools because its purpose is not to assess whether an individual is suited for a particular job or role. Instead, it aims to provide talent insights for developing strengths within roles.”

Pre-employment selection tools can predict employee performance on the job

Many pre-employment selection tools succeed at predicting performance because they have a completely different design than development tools like personality tests. Instead of seeking general traits and preferences, selection tools are tailored to a particular job in a particular organization, and are statistically calibrated to provide reliable predictive results (i.e., candidates who score highly on these tests also tend to perform well after they’re hired). In addition to the StrengthsFinder development tool, Gallup also offers these pre-employment selection tools, which include analytic services to ensure the validity and predictive value of the measures for candidate screening.

Pairin, Inc. is another organization that seeks to combine the personality test approach with specialized testing (for specific jobs, values, culture, etc.) as part of a pre-employment selection system. Using the Job Pairin System, employers can assess the presence of around 100 coachable/changeable behaviors such as emotional intelligence, leadership, attraction of followers, and even character.

A new spin on the behavioral interview

While services from Gallup and Pairin provide strong, evidence-based methods, the debate on using metrics to assess 21^st century skills will certainly continue. For good or bad, it is unlikely that the traditional way to measure 21^st century skills – the behavioral interview – will be unseated anytime soon. (Behavioral interviews are those that include questions like “Tell me about a time when you worked effectively under pressure.”)

Certainly, behavioral interviewing has problems of its own – for example, canned and otherwise disingenuous responses are all too common. While most companies still use a behavioral interviewing approach, those with top hiring practices tend to put their own clever spin on the questions to weed out rote responses and thus generate better insights from candidates. Questions like this tend to yield a wider spread between canned responses and those that show more nuance and self-awareness. Google also uses behavioral interviews, but structures them in a way that allows them to perform analytics and prove that certain responses predict employee performance.

Beyond the interview

Whatever method companies use to assess 21^st century skills in prospective employees, it’s important that they reflect on the key principles behind the assessment approaches. Findings from research on 21^st century skills provide an extremely valuable lens through which companies can view all interactions with candidates. Consider: What can you teach a new hire on the job, and what can you not teach? With information now abundantly available to us, almost anyone can learn basic Photoshop skills, for example, via online seminars. But what about abstract but indispensable skills like connectedness and empathy – can they be taught on the job?

When you interviewed the person who is now your highest performer, how did you know she would outperform the rest? Did you spot her innate ability to relate to other people, her ability to intuit the needs of different kinds of people? What were the indicators that she possessed those abilities?  We’d like to hear your thoughts on these questions and your experiences with hiring for 21^st century skills.

This post was written by Kate Jenkins, editor at Ashoka and editor-in-chief of The Intentional Quarterly, and James Ray, a Strategy Consultant for Nonprofit, Human Services, and International Development clients at Accenture It was originally published in Forbes and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network  This post does not necessarily represent the views of Accenture. Learn more about SmartRecruiters, your workspace to find and hire great people.

Our number one recruitment goal is building a relationship with either a new, struggling or a top producing real estate agent. Our goal for asking questions for the new or struggling agent is:

• Will they make it in real estate?
• What are their past accomplishments/work history? Sales experience?
• What is their personality/behavior style?
• The top producing agent is different in the fact that I want to know, what do they like? What do they dislike?
• What are the differences of our company vs. their company?
• What systems will I present to them?

The questions for new agents begin with telling me about his or her last job:

• What did you like and dislike?
• Why have you left, or why are you leaving, and what brings you here today?
• What sales experience do you have in your past, or contact with the public?
• Have you ever had to call people on the phone, or knock on doors to sell anything?
• What expectations are they looking for?

Now with struggling agents (diamonds in the rough) the questions are a little more to the point:

• How many people in your client base?
• How often do you market to your client base?
• How many FSBO (For Sale by Owner)’s have you listed?
• What is your technique when calling expired listings?
• How many hours in a day do you put into real estate?
• What have YOU done to build your real estate business?
• What are you expectations from a real estate company?
• Would you be willing to meet at 8:30 every morning to get your career back on track?

Experienced agents are in a ball game all by themselves. Here are some questions that I ask top producing agents:

• What three things are you looking for if you were to make a move?
• What would you change about where you are now?
• Are you familiar with our PinPoint or target marketing?
• When you take a listing what is your marketing strategy?
• How do you determine who you should market that listing to?
• Would you like to earn more money? How much more? Do you see yourself doing that with your current employer?
• What program do you use to manage your client database?

All of these interview questions – no matter if it’s for a new, struggling or top producing agent – are designed for me to find out where they are at. It also lets me see where I can add value to their sales career with the systems that we provide. Building relationships with prospective agents takes planning, patience, and a conviction that we are providing the best product for that agent.

Wes Cafourek is co-owner of Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate | SOUTHWEST GROUP. BHGRE SOUTHWEST GROUP has 3 locations in Missouri. The home office in Republic, MO and two branch offices in Springfield, MO and Aurora, MO to serve the real estate needs of residents in the Southwest Missouri area.

SmartRecruiters is the hiring platform with everything you need to source talent, manage candidates and make the right hires. 

Without the ability to hire a great team, your business won’t prosper. The most successful businesses know exactly what they are looking for in a candidate because they know the position well and the company culture better. Interviews are used to determine whether or not the candidate has the qualities and characteristics you’re looking for in a great hire. These ten companies have established specialized interview processes that are able to identify great hires who become members of high performing teams.

10. Tesla Motors practices a collaborative hiring process, introducing the candidate to the entire company when he or she comes into interview. At Tesla Motors prospective employees should expect to spend an entire day with the Tesla Staff getting to know the facilities on a tour as well as multiple interviews with members across all departments. A friend of mine who currently works there said, “Expect rapid-fire interview questions. Tesla’s goal wants to test your ability to be innovative. It’s like an agility challenge for your brain.” Becoming employed with the mechanically inclined is no easy feat. Tesla Motors is looking to hire employees as innovative and as quick as their product.

9. The Washington Post uses a targeted selection behavioral system. Their passionate team of journalists, developers, designers and editors are eager to share jobs, but cautious about who they hire to ensure they have a great cohesive team. The targeted selection interview process means The Washington Post asks questions to evaluate past performance that will predict future success. This interview style will require the candidate to be reflective and critical about their job history and past performance.  Interviewees should be prepared to give concrete examples of trials, tribulations and successes.

8. Procter & Gamble prides themselves on their ability to develop top talent from within the organization. P&G makes a large investment in their employees, and planning for this they want to make the right hire the first time around. After submitting an application, candidates will go through three tests before they can even have their first interview. A “success-driver assessment” is used to determine work related attitudes and measure compatibility to P&G. The next step is the “reasoning screen,” this cognitive exam is designed to be complex and match the continually changing P&G environment. Finally, a “reasoning test,” think SATS for adults.

7. Gallup’s interview process is designed to see how candidates respond under pressure. In a fast paced data driven environment, Gallup needs to ensure that their employees are able to maintain composure and provide accurate results. Gallup chooses to, “invest in the best.” Gallup has a specialized series of interviews starting with an online assessment, used to match candidate’s talents to the job description. To some this interview process may seem extra lengthy and tedious, but Gallup’s methods are based on their own studies of their most successful employees. For Gallup, all aspects of the interview are based on data.

6. Production Resource Group is, “disruptive to the entertainment technology industry hiring process,” says Manager of Recruiting and Employment, Richard Rubin. Unlike many other companies PRG’s interviewing process is not formulaic. Each interview is catered to the position the candidate is applying for and the culture of the company’s different locations. Each candidate should be prepared to exemplify the skills of the positio. For some positions PRG will ask a candidate to prepare a presentation based on their impression of how the job should be done if they were “running the show.” PRGs interviews are about performance in action and focused strictly on the job.

5. Teach for America needs candidates that can teach and excel in difficult circumstances. TFA teachers have to be prepared to stick with the program and invest in the children, as heavily as TFA invest in them as employees, if not more. The Huffington Post reports one of the toughest questions is: “What would cause you to want to dropout of Teach For America if you were chosen?”  TFA wants to see how honestly you will respond, and the obvious answer will probably not always be the right one.  After making it through a series of phone interviews and one on one assessments, TFA candidates will have an opportunity to hear and real life accounts from other TFA members, and participate in group activities to test leadership skills, and their ability to listen and learn.

4. Google has an infamously unique interview process. Their candidate will be expected to answer theoretical questions, as well as result processing ones.  From writing codes for Sudoku boards, to asking how you’d spend money there are few questions that are off limits. One candidate reports after his first time applying, he was told Google would follow up with him after he earned two years of experience. In most situations the likelihood of hearing back from a company would be slim to none. Two years exactly after their first contact, the candidate received a call. This a prime example of a company that knows exactly what they are looking for in candidates, and understand sometimes waiting for the best one is the best option.

3. Apple has built a reputation not only for their products, but also for their people. Steve Jobs said, “You need to have a collaborative hiring process,” and this style achieved a team that builds some of the most innovative and popular products of our time. Apple depends on the secrecy of it’s employees to make and distribute great products that no one else is. Knowing this, candidates should be prepared to answer hypothetical questions about how to approach working in a hyper secretive environment. Apple is looking for employees that are passionate and knowledgeable about their product before they start working there. Engineering questions, math problems, logic exams, programming, prototype testing- nothing is off limits. For example, “In a stream of integers from 1 to n, only one number will be repeated. How can you tell what that number is?” Do the math.

2. Pizza Hut is capitalizing on South By Southwest to find their new digital talent. Inspired by the available job positions each interview will be 140 seconds, yes that’s right, just like Twitter. Pizza Hut’s approach is like speed dating for a great hire. Candidates get a 140 second shot to make a great impression and show off their quick thinking abilities and social media skills. This method shows that Pizza Hut is aware of the times and the new generation of talent. They want their candidates to be expert micro-bloggers that can respond effectively within a few moments. I think it’s a great way to find exactly what you’re looking for in a candidate.

1. Salesforce.com has multiple ways of recruiting new employees. One of the most unique approaches I’ve ever heard of is their, “Build Your Own Dream-Team” event. Instead of candidates coming in like a typical job fair and meeting different departments handing out stack of resumes, candidates were encouraged to bring group of people that they would like to work with (talk about social recruiting). After a happy hour and teams finalizing, collaborative activities and assessments were used to identify skills and potential strengths. Grand-prize winners get offered a job. This approach is much less intimidating than the typical interview style, it’s a great way to meet people, and emphasizes the social atmosphere of salesfore.com.

Corporate Recruiting & Interviewing Process

These Big Brands have been successful because of their ability to hire great teams that are able to propel their business forward. Their specialized interview processes are proof that they know exactly what they are looking for in a candidate and they are not willing to compromise. To some candidates these companies’ styles may seem overwhelming and intimidating and if that’s the case…well, you’re just not the right person for the job. Having an interview process that’s caters to identifying the talent you’re looking for, is a great way to insure your quality of hire isn’t just good – it’s great!

“How many gallons of paint would it take to cover this entire city?” These types of questions stump everyone and are used to see how you think. Unless you’re a genius hiring geniuses, there’s not much direct benefit to asking these types of interview questions. But there are other ways to stump the interviewee, not just for your own amusement or what is technically called “interviewer-messing-with-people-syndrome.” Asking tough questions shows an interviewees preparation, knowledge, relevant work experience, and how they think, without asking an intangible question like, “Why are manholes round?” Here are four interview lines to stump the interviewee, with the purpose of getting a quality answer from the candidate.

“If you were an employee here, how would you…”

It’s not hard for an interviewee to talk about what they’ve done and their relevant work experience. Instead of talking about their past responsibilities  turn the tables and ask them hypothetically how they would do X as an employee of your company. This does two things; it reflects how deeply they researched the company – not just the position – and gives you the chance to test drive the candidate. Instead of speculating on what they would bring to your company, this gives you a solid analysis of their abilities and thought process. Lastly, instead of hearing the hypotheticals that follow, “How many basketballs fit in this room?” you receive a thought out, genuine answer.

“Give me another example…”

A good interviewee will think of one past relevant experience that connects to each responsibility. When you ask an interviewee to “give you a time when…” after they are done explaining, ask for another example. This reveals the extent of the work experience that the candidate has. It also shows that they really had the responsibility and didn’t just plan out what scenarios they were going to bring up in advance. A great interviewee will share another example on the spot.

“Explain our product / service as quickly as you can.”

It’s surprising how many job interviewees don’t actually know what the company they are interviewing with does. This question shows if the interviewee researched the company, and not just the position. This kind of question not only makes the interviewee have to think of a whim, but also shows how concisely they can explain something.

The Implication

This one’s tricky. With the implication, you set up a scenario, then ask if the interviewee would do it. You make it seem as though it is the right thing to do, however the best answer is if they disagree and tell you why they disagree with it.

Trying to stump the interviewee in the job interview will give you tangible insights to the candidate’s ability to think critically, as well as, talk about the self and the company. When conducting a job interview, use these interview prompts to discover how the job seeker would perform as an employee of your company.