Differentiating your institution during onsite interviews.
By: Vincent Scaramuzzo, President, Ed-Exec, Inc.
Very few people actually like to travel for work. It usually involves:
- Early morning trips to the airport before the sun has ever risen.
- Smelly Cabs/Uber.
- Airport Security.
- Crowded airplane terminals that are bound to expose you to every strain of the flu in circulation.
- Airport meals that can shatter a months worth of dieting.
- Stale peanuts and crowded plane seats.
So, when you are hiring for a key position at your school we ask finalists to undertake this unpleasant task so they can interview with us. Scheduling onsite visits can be extremely tedious. Some schools do a poor job of executing these arrangements and others forgo it entirely asking the candidates to go out of pocket and book it themselves only to be reimbursed many months later when Accounts Payable gets to it.
Neither of these scenarios is an effective way to differentiate your institution from others that are trying to secure the same talent. I can say with absolute certainty that the way you handle someone’s onsite interview will dramatically effect your ability to hire them or not. In fact, a visit handled poorly will often make up the candidates mind long before they sit in front of you. Think back to candidates that have turned down your offers, how smooth and inviting was the interview and travel process? It is without question candidates judge how a school runs by how they run their hiring process. If you are sloppy with it – they assume you are sloppy with everything.
However, if you make their visit easy and enjoyable not only will they be more interested in your opportunity – the negotiations are prone to being much smoother.
Here are some tips to make a candidates onsite visit stand out from the rest:
- Dedicate one person to handling your candidates travel. That can be someone internal, your search firm, a travel agent, whomever – but make sure it is one persons job to give them an excellent experience.
- Book EVERYTHING for the candidate. EVERYTHING! They should only have to go out of pocket for minor incidentals or an airport meal.
- Coordinate car service. Forget cabs and Uber as you will have to reimburse for that. Skip rental cars unless they are spending multiple days in town and will need to get around (if you do book a rental make sure its a really nice car). It is highly preferred to arrange a black car service for the candidate. Nothing says “you are important” like a chauffeur with the candidates name on a sign waiting for them at bag pickup.
- Make sure the hotel you book them at is really nice and close to your HQ. If there is not a shuttle have someone from the team pick them up on the way in.
- Buy them lunch or dinner. Contact the candidate in advance to see if they have any dietary constraints or meal preferences.
- If the interview goes really well have the hiring manager drive them back to the hotel or airport personally. This is a great opportunity to forge the early stages of their working relationship. Remember, people go to work for people as well as institutions.
- Make sure they have cell phone number of the person coordinating all of this so they can contact them if a travel hiccup occurs along the way.
Being the “Hostess with the Mostess” can make all the difference.
These simple tasks likely don’t cost more than how you handle your onsite visits now. They can certainly be much more extravagant than this or slightly more modest. Either way they have to be smooth, professional, and very welcoming. Be the “host or hostess with the mostess” and watch the amount of offer acceptances rise.
Vincent Scaramuzzo is the President of Ed-Exec, Inc. A leading Education Executive Search Firm. He is also a contributing author to various education publications. As a specialist in the education field for over a decade, Scaramuzzo works nationally with Education Institutions, PK-12, and Educational Service Providers Nationwide. He can be contacted at vincent@ed-exec.com 860-781-7641.