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The interview room, the meeting room, call it what you will, is your home turf. It is the pitch on which you play home matches.

Example

One particular client of my agency Business Connection, a bank that is in the top 20 locally, had a problem. Candidates would attend interviews and were considered completely suitable by the recruiter. The bank would make the candidate an offer of work… but the vast majority of these offers were turned down. We were asked to get to the bottom of the situation.

It was impossible to figure out what was going on with just a phone conversation, so I agreed to meet with them at their office. I arrive. I walk in to find a huge open space work area. Almost everyone in there is creating a lot of noise. Someone is eating a hot-dog, someone else is drinking coffee, another employee is yelling into their telephone. I asked my way to the HR department. Over there, comes the response, on the opposite side of the room. So I waled through this bustling, heaving cauldron and reach the HR department and say hello. I'm ready to discuss their issue, if I could just sit down. The girl offers me to «take a seat on that filing cabinet».

I'm taken aback. «You know», she responds, «our bank is growing, every day we have new members of staff, we're opening new offices. We don't have enough space, so you'll have to sit here on that filing cabinet, underneath the palm tree in a metal bucket». Okay, I think to myself, so there's no meeting space but there is enough space for a palm tree. So I sat down on the filing cabinet I was offered and get ready for our discussion. Their recruiter's phone is ringing off the hook and she is constantly being distracted from our meeting. I asked her: «Where do you usually hold interviews?». «Well, we hold them right here» she replies. «On a filing cabinet?», I enquire. «Well, yes, what's wrong with that?»

I didn't need to ask her any more questions. A bank, a fortress of reliability, confidence and stability indeed! How could a candidate possibly want to work here, when the job interview is held while sitting on a filing cabinet on wheels which is constantly moving around underneath you?

So we identified their issue quickly and the situation with their meeting room was soon addressed. Their issue with hiring candidates soon disappeared.

You need to have a dedicated space to hold meetings, a separate meeting room. In a communal space you will simply not get to know a candidate properly. He or she will worry that any passerby could listen in. Psychologically speaking, the candidate will shut up shop. You won't be able to learn what you need to about their salary expectations, for example. It's unrealistic to expect otherwise. The candidate has to feel secure, and bare all to the recruiter, in the same way you would a doctor. Would you go to a dentist in an open space environment? What about if you have a more private ailment?

My colleague from Minsk made a cool meeting room, hanging messages of thanks from the mayor and the president on the walls, along with diplomas and certificates. Candidates were led into the room and left along for a couple of minutes. During this time, what would the candidate do? Read them all carefully, of course. The recruiter was received quite differently as a result.

The walls in your own home can help too.

Do you have a dedicated meeting room? No? Then demand one. It is your tool. As well as a place to calmly make notes and reason upon what you have seen and heard.

Organize the space in the meeting room with a single shared table for you and the candidate to sit around. This is important. A meeting on a soft couch cannot be considered an interview.

Up to 50 % of all HR managers hold interviews «under the palm tree». This is a big no-no.

Sometimes, a company might have a meeting room but recruiters are the last in line to use one, or they might be asked to leave it during the interview itself. This is a matter of building a relationship with the management, as we will discuss further into this book.