Meet the New Elevator Pitch. Managers Love the Speed Interview

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

Time Management for Managers

If you are a seasonal industry or someone who is mass hiring in large volume, you have a deadline, a boss, and not a moment to waste.  Managers are juggling, multi-tasking, and losing ground.  Good managers are hard to find.  In fact, they are invaluable members of your team.  A 2012 Stanford Study shows that having a boss who ranks in the top 10% is like having an additional member on your team.  They motivate others.  They manage time effectively, and they are always looking for more. 

Good managers are looking for ways to improve productivity and cram more hours for themselves into the day.  They rely on their gut or intuition as time is increasingly short or pressed at work.  This is especially true during the busy holiday shopping and staffing season, and one solution to manager proactivity could very well be the speed interview. 

When it comes to hiring faster, better, and more quickly, the solution just might be the speed interview.  Traditional face-to-face interviews range between thirty minutes to an hour and a half for one interview.  For a manager who is looking to hire a temporary workforce of 50 or more they just might interview more than 125-150 candidates. There are not enough hours in the day. 

How to Find the Best Candidate for the Job with Speed Interview

Speed interviews provide a quick, personal, and private alternative for a hiring manager who is looking to qualify candidates quickly, easily, and most important quickly.  Lasting just sixty seconds these are fast paced conversations where the manager assesses whether the candidate moves on to the next interview round.  Hiring managers use resume and job applications in this fashion spending an average of 6 seconds scanning a candidate’s resume.  Yes, you read correctly 6 seconds. 

Speed interviews can happen in a variety of different ways:

• ·      Video Introduction.  This is recorded video introduction or pitch that the job seeker provides a hiring manager.  It is difficult from a video interview in that the job seeker quickly articulates their job qualifications and special skills while working hard to make a professional and personal impression without a series of interview questions. 

• ·      A Formal Event.  Candidates and employers meet in a speed dating style format.  The employer organizes quick sixty-second meetings with a hiring manager and job seeker either in a formally.  This works best at an event like a career fair, open house, or networking events. 

• ·      Telephone Interview.  A common practice among recruiters is to quickly qualify job seekers over the phone.  These interactions are not planned  like a traditional formal interview that is scheduled and lasts 5-15 minutes so job seekers must be prepared.  Recruiters can quickly ask a candidate about their availability or for an explanation as to any red flag that may have surfaced on their application.

Speed Interviewing Improves the Hiring Process

Speed interviews can be used a number of different ways.  For recruiters and hiring manager’s it is very important to be familiar with the job requisition qualifications before you meet with the candidate.  Plan your interactions and what qualities you are looking for saving you more time and effort throughout the hiring process.  

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media.  She’s an author who writes at Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @blogging4jobs. 

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