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[b]BLUF: Is it appropriate to conduct a modified interview of sorts with the team members being inherited?[/b]

I will be a manager at this company as of Monday the 8th of December and I will be inheriting an existing group of people. That group has yet to be defined for me so it may be a current cohesive group that has previously worked together as a team or it may be a "shuffle the deck" realignment of existing employees within the organization who may or may not have previously worked together before.

Is there any validity, reason to, reason not to conduct a quasi-interview of each of the "new" people to the team to get to know more about them? It wouldn't be an outright "On Tuesday we will spend two hours together in which you will re-interview for your current position to determine whether or not you will retain your job." It would be more like "Tell me about yourself, tell me what you're most proud of at work, tell me what challenges you've faced recently." Less formally posed than that but probing in the general interview areas anyway.

The way I see it, I don't get the chance to interview new hires to my team and I would like to get some level of background from you -- I'd like to know where you're coming from, what you're looking for, what your challenges and triumphs have been, etc.

jhack's picture

Definitely do the interviews. I think this is mentioned in the "Virtual Teams" podcast from way back when.

Tell them that you want to have a consistent baseline for everyone on the team, and that the interview format (with resume!) is a great baseline. Make it clear their employment status isn't at risk because of the interview, and that you want people to have responsibilities aligned with their skills.

And ask the same questions you would in a job interview.

John

AManagerTool's picture

I'd just do it in the 1on1's that you are going to schedule with them. It's not like you can turn them down so why do it in a separate "interview" meeting. The questions have value but the one time download of an interview is going to be exhausting and rather daunting for the both of you. Ask the same questions in your one on ones every so often and now you have a no threatening, low impact, getting to know you set of questions.

douglase's picture

I think that you would be better off just rolling out the MT Trinity, and avoiding a faux interview.

I have run training exercises with staff I already had a good relationship with to help them understand how a government interview process goes.  But that was a training exercise.

Every O3 really is a little interview, you interview them, they interview you.

 

Regards

Douglas.