Interviews - you have to conduct them. It’s not always the most enjoyable aspect of your job – you would rather be out on the sales floor - merchandising, promoting, and selling Candles of Eden and other product lines. However, you have to have those essential and effective staff members in place. The only way you will achieve this is by performing productive interviews during your hiring process. When you do, you can then make wise choices as to who will constitute the creative and motivated members of your team.

A productive interview process lets you know a candidate’s interest level for your company. It also lets you know their personality type and their ability to think on their feet (taking into account natural nervousness that is part of interviews). The interview process also lets you know a person’s affinity for your type of business – are they naturally suited to your business? Are they interested in giftware and SoyLuscious® Soy Candles and complementary product lines?

Some people can grow to have an affinity for a type of business or industry, some will never. Remember, some candidates will show interest in the position you are offering but it does not mean they are suited to that position. A productive interview will let you know whether they are the right fit for you and your business.

A productive interview process will also let you know what type of training program to implement for a particular candidate. This allows you to be efficient and get an employee up-to-speed in your operations quickly because you assessed their skill level properly during an interview. You do not have to wait until they work a few weeks selling Candles of Eden and other products to know what skill set they have or do not have. A productive interview gives you a head start in this area so you do not engage the new employee in training that is not necessary.

Here are some tips for making the interview process a productive one:

Schedule appropriate interview time: Don’t rush interviews. You will feel stressed and the person you’re interviewing will sense this. This will affect their openness to you. Give them enough time to get comfortable, relaxed, and talking. With sufficient time, they will reveal their personality, knowledge, and skills to you. With enough time for discourse, you, and the person you interview, will be at ease.

Ask productive questions: Ask these types of questions continually after the opening pleasantries. Be congenial, but be direct. Every question you ask, and all conversation, needs to elicit information to help you make a wise hiring decision. Productive questions are unique to each owner-operator’s business. You know what you need in a candidate so ask them if they can do this, that; have done this, or that; would enjoy this or that, and the like. You do not have to sound like a pre-programmed robot interrogating someone – you do have to remain focused on the purpose of the interview and why both of you are there.

Ask real-life questions: Ask questions about what a candidate has done in certain situations. Don’t ask hypothetical, general, or philosophical questions that result in dreamy answers that give no indication of how a candidate will handle situations in the retail or spa world. You may ask if they have ever sold soy candle products such as Candles of Eden before. You may ask have they ever done associative selling activities between candles and bed and bath lines. You can ask them about specific selling successes in these or other areas.

Remain neutral to their answers: You are there to collect information and learn about the person. If you give indications of disagreement, or shock, or whatever (and these do happen) a candidate may clam up. They may also reformulate their subsequent rehearsed responses in hopes of giving you what you want to hear.

Finally, listen more than talk: You need lots of information from a candidate. They need less from you. So let them do the talking while your fingers do the walking with a pen on a page writing down their answers.

Productive interviews make hiring decisions easier. You have more high-quality information at hand to make an informed personnel decision when you conduct productive interviews. That results in quality hiring’s who have the potential to help you sell your Candles of Eden and other product lines successfully.