Making the Case for Final Interview Presentations

With the cost of a bad hire uppermost on the minds of talent acquisition pros, companies are hardening their hiring by asking job candidates to “close the deal” by making final interview presentations in front of their (potential) future colleagues -- Glassdoor included. At Glassdoor, most job finalists (interns, too!) must deliver a 20-minute presentation before a dozen or more team members, a talent cross-section including specialists and managers, senior directors and VPs. For candidates with limited work or public speaking experience, it can be an unnerving requirement to talk about their work history, why they’re right for Glassdoor and their 90-day plan if hired. But the final presentation is one last chance to assess a candidate’s background and skillset, verbal communications and culture fit. Afterward, team members, including the hiring manager, pepper follow-up questions at the candidate to bring out their critical thinking, personality and passion for the job and company. Finally, the candidate is escorted out and team members spend three to five minutes offering concerns, props and a thumbs up or a thumbs down, hopefully leaving the hiring manager with a consensus. As it turns out, acing earlier rounds of one-on-one interviews is no guarantee a candidate will dazzle during the final presentation. Three perspectives on the final candidate presentation Should your organization adopt a final presentation requirement for your top candidates? Based on the perspectives of candidate, recruiter and hiring manager, such a process can have distinct advantages. 1. From the recruiter Jamie Hichens is a Glassdoor Talent Acquisition Partner. Q: Why is a candidate presentation a good way to vet candidates? JH: Presentations allow us to see a candidate in action—their presentation skills, which they will likely need for a role in sales, marketing or PR, as well as their personality, sense of humor and passion for Glassdoor and the opportunity as a whole. Q: What do you look for? JH: Someone who is confident, cool under pressure and excited about us. Someone whom we see fitting in well with the team. Q: How does a presentation scan for culture fit? JH: Standard one-on-one interviews are usually more formal, making it hard to gauge a candidate's personality. Candidates open their final presentations by letting us know who they are, where they're from and what their interests are. This often leads to shared connections (and mutual laughs) with the team, once their personality quirks and sense of humor shine through. Q: Does it help bring out the candidate's true personality or work adaptability? JH: Yes. I've seen a candidate fumble through a presentation and blame it on our AV system, acting very accusatory and not calm under pressure. That is not someone who will succeed here. We need people who can roll with the punches and come up with solutions on the spot. On the flip side, we recently hired someone who had all the necessary skills but was very serious during the interview process. When she gave her presentation, we discovered she was hilarious, self-deprecating and a perfect culture fit for us. Without the presentation, we wouldn’t have known she was a perfect match. 2. From the candidate Glassdoor Senior Programs Manager Katie Williams delivered her final presentation in the spring of 2014. Q: Do you think the group presentation was a worthwhile exercise? KW: 100%. Now that I work at Glassdoor, I realize how important the presentation is for finding culture fits for the team. To me, the process is more about culture fit and less about the candidate’s work background and skills. Q: Did you resent doing it? Were you nervous? KW: I was definitely nervous, but knew it was what I needed to do to show my personality to a large group of people and make sure I was going to fit well into the culture and team.  Q: Do you think it's a good way to bring out a candidate's skillset, culture fit, passion and understanding of the job in front of potential team members? KW: Yes, we've actually had candidates who weren't as impressive during their one-on-ones but then blew us away during presentations. We’ve also seen candidates we thought would do well in the presentation but blow it. This process allows us to get to know the candidate a little better and see if they fit in with the team dynamic. Because I'm on the marketing team, it helps to see how this person speaks to large groups and how they might carry themselves when speaking to clients and partners.  3. From the Hiring Manager Katherine Johnson is Glassdoor Director of B2B Digital Marketing. Q: When hiring for a position, how does the presentation process help you? KJ: Final candidate presentations allow a hiring manager to avoid making an isolated decision that could be criticized later. The larger team has the chance to get to know the candidate personally and hear their plans for the role. This type of interactive, longer get-to-know situation is particularly useful for assessing culture fit, which we all know is critical to a new hire's success. If half your team members aren't comfortable with your pick, do you really want them on board? Probably not. Q: What other benefits are there? KJ: The presentations give the larger team a chance to weigh in, give feedback, and, if all goes well, offer a full thumbs-up. All these things give the hiring manager either additional points of consideration (if there are any concerns) or more confidence in their decision. Both are significantly useful.  Q: Do you have advice for companies considering adopting a final presentation process? KJ: Make sure the presentation question(s) are not too complex or longer than 20 minutes with about 10 minutes for Q&A. Q: Why stop at 20 minutes? KJ: After that, a presentation's usefulness begins to wane. Team members may get distracted, bored or even confused. Also, adding final presentations for some or all top candidates can begin to fill up everyone's schedules. My advice is schedule presentations only for your favorite and final picks. For the group, choose key team members who will work closest with the hire. Q: What works for uncovering a candidate’s qualifications? KJ: Asking a guided question like, “What’s your plan for your first 90 days?” can give everyone a good idea how they’ll approach the job starting day one. What questions would they ask once they start? What approach would they take to deal with the challenges of the position? All these will be strong indicators on whether they'll become rock stars after being hired. Of course, they might not have all the answers yet, but the team can judge their confidence, positivity and presentation skills. In summary From clarity of thinking to poise, a final interview presentation gives job finalists a platform to champion their candidacy in front of team members they’ll be working with on a daily basis or cross-functionally. For organizations worried about making the right choices, implementing the requirement may be the ticket to vetting and hiring better-fit candidates who can hit the ground running and flourish in their culture. Note: For more inspiration, download our Cost of a Bad Hire eBook and read our blog post about the Top 10 Oddball Interview Questions for 2016.