Interview Smarter, Hire Better

Interview Smarter, Hire Better: A Strategic Approach to Interviewing

At Strategic Talent Management (STM), we believe hiring is more than just finding someone who meets a job description—it’s about securing the long-term success of your organization. Every misstep in the hiring process can become a costly lesson, which is why we created our “Interviewing Guide” to help you minimize risk and consistently bring top talent onto your team. Below, we’ll discuss critical highlights of our guide and share how we can partner with you for all your people needs.

Why Interviewing Skills Matter

You’re probably familiar with the financial toll of high turnover: hiring errors can cost seven to nine weeks of pay for an entry-level person and up to several years’ salary for senior executives. Beyond direct salary or recruiting fees, a poor hire impacts team morale, lowers productivity, and can even damage client relationships. Our years of insight have shown that an effective, systematic interview process is one of the best ways to dodge these pitfalls.

The Three Essential Interview Types

A best practice interviewing strategy includes three stages: Initial Vetting, Exploration, and Validation.

1. Initial Vetting
   Often conducted over the phone or via a short virtual meeting, this stage quickly reveals whether the candidate meets your non-negotiable technical, attitude, motivation and behavioral requirements. If the basics don’t match up, you save yourself and the candidate from an unproductive process.
2. Exploration Interview
   At this point, you want to look at their people skills, and how well they fit your culture and the job itself. We recommend identifying your “must-haves,” “should-haves,” and “nice-to-haves,” then asking situational and behavioral questions to get a genuine sense of how the individual operates under pressure.
3. Validation Interview
   Before making that final offer, the Validation Interview zeroes in on any red flags or uncertain points. If you’re using STM’s suite of assessments, this final step clarifies whether the person will truly thrive in your unique environment. You might introduce “what-if” scenarios based on your day-to-day realities to gauge how a candidate responds to added stress or unexpected situations.

Going Beyond Resumes with Assessments

In our guide, we highlight how critical it is to look past resumes alone. Behaviors, motivators, and competencies collectively show not just whether someone can do the job, but whether they will do it effectively, day in and day out. By mapping a person’s communication style, drive, and problem-solving approach to your team’s culture, you significantly boost retention and performance.

• Behaviors tell you how the candidate interacts with others
• Motivators uncover why they perform
• Competencies answer the question will they perform by showing capacity for strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, and role engagement among 75 unique competencies

Building a High-Performance Team

When you hire the right people, you’re creating a ripple effect of success—projects run smoothly, clients are happier, and your organizational culture thrives. But getting there takes a structured, proven system. Our interviewing process emphasizes careful planning, targeted questioning, and thorough evaluation. We believe these factors, combined with rigorous assessments, are the surest way to avoid expensive hiring mistakes.

Partner with Strategic Talent Management

We don’t just provide a guide and send you on your way. Our team at Strategic Talent Management offers hands-on services—ranging from creating interview questions tailored to your company’s culture and needs, to providing in-depth Behavior, Motivation, and Competency assessments. We train your hiring managers on how to dig deeper in interviews and interpret assessment results in a way that is fair, consistent, and predictive of real on-the-job performance.

• Save Time & Money: Implement best practices and reduce the chance of costly rehires.
• Enhance Culture: Identify people who strengthen your company’s core values and vision, or who will help nudge the culture in a new direction.
• Boost Retention: Select employees who will not just succeed but also want to stay and grow with you.

If you’re ready to elevate your interview process and bring top talent into your organization, reach out to us. We’ll work with you to design and execute a hiring strategy that protects your bottom line and propels your business forward.

Download a copy of our interviewing guide and give us a call to learn more about how to implement best practices into your hiring process.