"Drive-Through Interviewing and Other Alternatives Take Root to Foster Meaningful Interviews" - 07/22/20 Edition
Stephen Says Column




Dear Stephen,

I am an HR executive in West Michigan. We are trying new ways to safely interview candidates for positions at our HQ and manufacturing facilities. We are burnt out on Facetime and Zoom interviews and trying to find new ideas.

I read about a staffing agency that came up with a creative idea, and I am thinking of trying it out here at our company. It's moving the interview to a designated area in our parking lot where our internal recruiters can be in their own car. The candidate pulls up, window to window, but six feet apart. We have not interviewed in person or from the office since January, but you get the idea — I'm just searching for something new and better. Parking lot interviewing also has the benefit of getting the candidate to see our impressive facilities.

It's great for spring, summer and fall, not so sure how it will work in the winter. Do you think this will appeal to candidates? Any other ideas? How does it sound to you?

Signed,

Park and Interview
 

Dear Park,

It sounds like a great idea! I, too, have heard of employment agencies and companies in the manufacturing industry nationwide that have begun conducting drive-up interviews. In addition to operations staff, I could picture this also working for salespeople, depending on the geography.

This creative solution that asks candidates to submit basic information ahead of time and then receive a designated date, time and parking space to be met and interviewed by the recruiter, is just one of the ways staffing agencies and HR departments of employers like you will have to innovate the hiring process. With this method, you may be able to have a "mask reveal" with the candidate, which gives the hiring manager and the candidate a better sense of who you each are and makes today's new normal more normal.
 

Drive-up interviewing in your parking lot is a great idea,
even though it is seasonal and weather dependent, so by all means let's try it.


Alternatively, my own idea would be putting up a tent and some socially distanced tables outside your building, so in nice weather the interview could take place there. This takes the car out of the equation. If one candidate drives up in an old beater car and the next has a just-washed new car, will the interviewer be influenced by that? I would hope not, but it may affect the interviewer's decisions, even unconsciously.

Unfortunately, where I am in NYC we don't have those large parking lots the midwest and southern manufacturers have, so there's very little opportunity to interview outside (on a bench in Central Park — I don't think so!). We'll be sticking with Facetime and Zoom. In other parts of the country there are lots of open parking lots so I guess you could do car-to-car interviews there, or you could even meet at an outdoor table at a McDonald's, keeping masks on. Somehow those options — meeting somewhere other than the headquarters' parking lot — do not appeal to me and seem a little weird with what is going on today.

Drive-up interviewing in your parking lot is a great idea, even though it is seasonal and weather dependent, so by all means let's try it. Thank you for asking and bringing it to my attention. I am happy to share it with our readers and pass along the idea. Think about my outdoor tent as well. This can turn into a real boom for the SITE furniture manufacturers. And if you are a manufacturer and not making SITE furniture right now, consider it as a new product introduction for 2021. It's a very small group of manufacturers like Landscape Forms, and the greenest company I know, Vestre, with plenty of room for more competitors.

Stephen
 

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Stephen Viscusi is a bestselling author, television personality, and CEO of The Viscusi Group,
global executive recruiters located in New York.
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