When you consider hiring new employees, wouldn’t it help if you could see them in action rather than just hearing about them from references and meeting them relatively out of context in a typical interview? That’s where the working interview comes in. See if it’s a good idea for you and your needs.

What are the benefits? Working interviews tend to occur quite often in fields with a lot of hands-on work and interaction with customers, such as the dental industry, numerous medical industries, and industrial work. It’s a way to see how final candidates function in a real-time situation: Do they have the necessary skills to work with patients? How do they respond when given a complex task to complete? It also helps you see if the candidate’s personality fits with the culture of your company–do they work well with other team members? Take direction well? Listen and complete tasks as indicated?

Some important considerations: If you truly want to get the measure of how a candidate will do under pressure, consider the working interview. You need to decide whether to do a paid or unpaid interview. With regard to the former, you must pay that candidate if you have the person work in the same capacity as an employee, usually for a four- or eight-hour period

• Keep in mind as well that the legality of working interviews can vary, and the safest route is to go through an agency so the candidate is considered their employee–you can get into serious taxation snarls if you attempt to conduct a working interview without that intermediary.
• For an unpaid working interview, the person basically shadows a current employee, not actually interacting in the work but discussing the required tasks and steps with a supervisor. You might also present the candidate with specific scenarios or equipment and ask how they would deal with each.

If you do a working interview, schedule it during a time of moderate pace that will increase as the day progresses – you can see how the candidates respond in kind. Have a mentor there for any questions but allow the candidate leeway to act as he sees fit. Set up everything in writing beforehand and specifically discuss the process, whether it’s paid or unpaid, and how long the candidate will work.

If you want to truly get the measure of how a top candidate will fit in with your company, look seriously at the working interview. To help set one up or to find out more information, reach out to the experienced LA staffing team at PrideStaff LA.