During the last 18 plus months, many employees have thought long and hard about if their job or career fits the lifestyle they want to lead. In many cases, this translates into candidates resigning and looking for different things from their next employer. On the other side, employers must consider how to attract, retain, and accommodate employees who no longer wish to accept a completely traditional approach to their work life. As a result, it’s not surprising to see changes taking place in the interview process. These evolutions are occurring on both sides of the hiring desk as employers and job candidates look to adjust the interview process to be more in tune with the changes in expectations of each other.
Human Side of Hiring
For many, recent events have brought into clearer focus of who and what is important in life and at work. The realities of childcare, jobs, and school have quickly showed what was working and what was not. To better learn what an employment candidate is looking for in their next experience, employers are striving to better know the individual beyond their resume skills and work history. For some hiring managers, this might include having conversations about schooling or childcare much earlier in the interview and hiring process.
Hiring for Adaptability
The need to balance work and home life is always going to be different for each job candidate. For employers this increasingly means finding a way to build and sustain a culture with employees potentially working in hybrid, home, and in-office workplaces. Maintaining this delicate balance will include looking for candidates with high emotional empathy, strong people skills, and a penchant for problem solving, innovation and resiliency.
Mining for Strengths
With life holding plenty of its own surprises, some hiring managers are choosing to move away from riddle-like questions or surprise tactics during the interview process; instead, focusing on questions that allow job candidates to succinctly highlight their skills. This method is also more likely to allow candidates and recruiters to set up a level of trust that allows both sides to get the information they want and need to make a good hiring choice.
