I Was Wrong About Group Interviews

You set up ten one on one interviews but only three people showed up. Are you the only one dealing with the fact that people just don't want to go to work? You're not. And that's why I made this video. Because times have changed and so have my views. I used to be very anti group interview but now I'm not. I'm taking a slice of humble pie and I'm explaining the philosophy of why I was against them and why I'm for them in today's time. But not just for group interviews because you need to watch this all the way to the end to get the recruiting funnel that I would recommend putting your people through so you don't fall victim to the in my inherent still existing problems of the group interview process. My name is Adam Bensman and if you're in charge of recruiting and hiring for the company that you work for or that you run, you're in the right place and I cannot wait to get started. This particular video was inspired by a recent leadership roundtable session that I hosted inside the Roofing and Solar Reform alliance which is an application only community of value aligned roofers. We're pretty much fed up with like the mainstream roofing world and we share our winning secrets to help each other dominate in today's uncertain and fast changing world. And the fast changes is what led to my views changing. And I'm not a dogmatic person. Like I know when I'm wrong, I'm happy to admit when I'm wrong. And that's the evolution of growing and I hope to grow alongside you right now as I share why I changed my views on group interviews and giving you this recruiting funnel towards work with. So let's get started. Roofing sales is personal development in disguise and the reward for growth is life changing. I hope my content helps you create a richer life and bank account. All right, first, why was I against group interviews? Here's why. The old school way of doing group interviews. And when I say old school, I just want to bring you back to when Most everybody was 1099. I know. We know that a big wave has has gone into effect since the March 11 FLSA law, the Fair Labor Standards act law, which basically takes that gray area of 1099 and makes it pretty much black and white. Which is why so many roofing companies, including many of the private equity groups, are going employee only or won't look at you unless you're employee driven and not 1099. And in those old days of the 1099 world, which by the way, we've helped a lot of people make that change. And in rsra, in that old world, the philosophy which was still false by the way, was oh, we should do these group interviews and bring in let's say 30 people and then sell them on working for us because they're 1099, so they don't really cost us anything, which is not true. But anyway, to them they don't see a hard cost attributed, which again is false. And we're going to just send them out. And out of the 30, if we get five, we're still winning. And the reason that I didn't like that approach was many. First was values. It is our responsibility, in my opinion and according to my value system that when we bring someone into this business, their performance dictates their income and their income dictates their quality of life and whether or not they can survive on what they earn. And when I've made wrong hires, I lose sleep over it. This happened to me recently and I still feel terrible. I made a decision that I shouldn't have done, that I shouldn't have made. But the point is, is if I'm bringing all those people on and all those people don't make it, I oversold them on an unrealistic career path that often led them into deeper amounts of debt and jeopardized the livelihood of their family members and their children. So for that reason alone, I'm not for it. Second reason, I'm not for it. Horrible for culture. You see 30 people come in, five people stick. Not a good idea. Three, horrible for your reputation. You have no idea what people are saying. There's no control. All right, so all for all those reasons I was super anti group interview. I just didn't see anyone that did these like mass hirings, mass interview process that had a really strong culture. But fast forward to today's time. Until then. Excuse me, let me, let me rewind. Up until now I believed in a one to one interview because it allowed us to hire someone with laser like precision, protect our culture, hire with integrity, make sure that the people we're hiring, we believe the best shot at success. And I know not everyone will make it, but we do our absolute best versus the spray and pray method. And again, times have changed. So we fast forward to now. People don't show up for interviews, people don't want to go to work. If you clear an entire day of calendars, you have interview set, but three quarters of your day is wasted. Like this isn't efficient. So in Today's times. The group interview for phase one of the interview is incredibly powerful. So here's what I recommend. Now this is the evolution of my belief system, okay? Number one is to do a group interview as phase one. These should be scheduled after business hours or on the weekend. Why? Because people that want to get a better job, the most employable people currently are employed, period. So if you only offer interviews where they have to leave work and they can't leave work, you're going to miss out on that pool. So have at least one of those times pre dedicated for after hours so people can attend. Okay? So that's your first tip. Second tip, you get as many folks as reasonably possible who are qualified to show up for the group interview. That group interview can be done either on zoom virtually or in person. How do you decide which is best for you? You pick. But here's some parameters. If you have someone that is in charge of hiring or recruiting, that's virtual or not local, do it on zoom. If you serve a huge service area, do it on Zoom. Now if you're in a small market and you want to get a really good feel for people, do it in person. Because you learn a lot from people based on how they carry themselves if they show up on time, all that jazz. So again, there could be a case for both, but we're seeing a much more common trend towards zoom interviews because it's just easier and faster. All right, now running the group zoom interview, this is a time for the candidate to learn more about the position, for you to sell the position and for you to sell the company, both on the vision of the company, the values of the company and the opportunities that you're going to provide to that individual. Because you know as well as I that that potential new recruit is shopping other roofing companies and they're going to be judging you based on the interview process. The very first touch points they have with you is when they start drawing their conclusions, whether or not they want to bank their livelihood with you. Okay? So that group interview, they show up, we want to sell them on what this industry can do for them at large because many of them are outside the industry. 2. We want to sell the company our vision and our values. What makes us unique, why we're better and different without saying we're better and different. Let your stories do the telling. Maybe bring in some people who are doing really well at the company as social proof and testimonials to share their successes. And this can be cycled through different people at the Company to chime in and say, here's who I was before, here's who I am now, what I was earning before, what I'm earning now. Okay, and then the final thing is to wrap up with questions because this is a time for the candidates to identify whether or not they even want to pursue this career path. Now let's say you invite 10 people to the group interview, but three show up. You went from having 10 hours slated to one. That's a huge savings. Three people show up. Two, you want to get a one on one interview with which by the way is the next phase. Set up a one on one interview, okay? Then we can talk next steps, which I will in a moment. During this interview you're going to rely on that experience with the potential candidate. Did they show up on time? Did they do homework? Did they have good questions for you? How did they carry themselves? How did they communicate? And if all that checks out and you're like, you know what? I want to offer them the next step. You get the one on one interview scheduled on the spot with them there. There's a couple ways you can do this, either via calendly or an appointment scheduling where you drop a link and say if you're interested but book your next appointment right now. Or you can privately message or say, hey, the following people I'd like to stick around in the group interview, I'd like Mike, James and Sarah to stick around. They do and you say okay great. I want to get each of you scheduled for a one on one interview and you get it scheduled as soon as possible following that interview. Some of them can be done like literally from group interview flowing right into the one on one and you can move the others into a breakout room to wait or you can get them scheduled to come into the office however you want to do it. Then in that one on one interview, do you discuss the more intricate details of the job, get a feel for them, let them ask further questions and then offer them this position. And this my friend, is why my views have changed. And it really boils down to one thing and that's the changing times of people, people not showing up. So I hope this helps. Run your ad to pre slotted group interview times that are advertised in the ad. Get people to show up. Those that show up and you run it just like I shared, selling the dream and the vision of their life that the industry will provide your company your vision and get their questions answered. Set the one on one interview next and then offer them position. But you're probably thinking, well, what do I do in the interview? Well, it's a great question, and my best advice is to start off by asking these three deal breaker questions so you don't hire the wrong people. And I'll teach you that in the very next video. Sam.