‘How can I be sure if a good candidate will make a great member of my team?’ Is a question every hiring manager asks.

In fact, the process of interviews are generally more of a sales gig and an exercise of selling a potential future to a candidate who presumably may deem fit to join the same cause that you have been working for. Aside from separating the wheat from the chaff, a standard hiring process can be just dull for both the candidate as well as the interviewer. And the saga of creating a ‘dream team’ continues.

Invariably, there is a need to bring in amendments to the commandments of hiring. Unusual recruitment methods often help produce candidates that are not only exceptionally skilled, but also enthused and engaged with the job. Tech companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon and many other often are bringing in uncanny interview and selection methods when it comes to assessing the culture fit of candidates. It is all about whether they are aligned to the organization’s cultural values, ethics and norms. Anyone can answer a series of probing questions when you call them at the expected time of interview. But what happens when you build unexpected situations around it?

Let us go through a few innovative ways in which interviews are getting transformed:

Bring in an element of unpredictability

Sometimes making the interview pattern confusing helps you to find potential candidates who can navigate through the right path with less need of clear instruction. In real life business scenarios, many a times you or your team may need to take certain actions that may not have clear cut guidelines. The decision to reach the optimal solution reflects upon one of the important skills known as ‘acceptance of ambiguity’. In this dynamic and volatile world, this is a great indicator of who will perform best when there’s confusion and unpredictability involved in a given task. And HR can have a plan to create a system where such kinds of interview patterns help to find out the right culturally fit candidate. Testing out the skill of adapting to an unpredictable situation can help in understanding the skill sets needed for the given role.

Create a non-comfort zone

Many a times, I have found that employees start behaving irrationally when they have to get out of their comfort zone. It often results in disgruntled behavior followed by a productivity drop. How do you try to identify such candidates who remain excited even when they are uncomfortable? There’s a simple exercise which can be followed during an interview. Create situations during the interview sessions which make them uncomfortable - like change the interview room as soon as he gets settled or ask the same question more than once or conduct dual interviews with a good cop and bad cop vibe. Ensure that your candidates do not get comfortable at one go during the interview when you have a culture that needs people to be more flexible towards sudden ongoing changes repeatedly. This is how you will find people who are uncomfortably excited and can manage the organizational culture better. Also make a ton of incorrect assumptions in front of the candidate during the interview. This helps in weeding out candidates who are easily annoyed and have an attitudinal issue.

Testing time!

Imagine a situation where you present a portfolio and your presentation stops working. Oops! Something went wrong.

Quite possible! Yes, it is important to see how a candidate adjusts to ‘less than ideal’ circumstances. You can deliberately set up the candidate’s presentation in the conference room where there’s a technical snag bound to happen. If the candidate is able to roll with it and navigate towards a solution himself, then that’s a good sign.  Bonus points are given for candidates who have a Plan B or Plan C. This is a must-have while choosing the right candidate. Check how comfortably, can she or he handle problems with ease.

However, not everyone performs well under such mysterious pressures created during the interview cycle. Perhaps a certain amount of leeway should be given and these must be used only when you are sure about the gaps that need to be evaluated. While trying and testing the above methods, make the recruitment process more enjoyable for both - candidates and the interviewers. Make sure that it is viewed in a more positive light for the organization and it also helps to keep the potential candidate more engaged during the process. Always remember that a different interview process will not only be more memorable to candidates; it will also give them a clearer understanding of your company culture which in turn may possibly make them more attracted to join your company.