3 tips for evaluating a candidate's motivation

While it is clear that skills (technical or behavioral) and experience are very important before recruitment, motivation is just as important. Indeed, no matter how competent a candidate is, if the motivation is not there, then he will certainly be less productive and may even leave the company.

This is why poor recruitment can very well influence your turnover. Hence the importance of knowing Tips to limit it. On the other hand, a motivated candidate is more committed to his goals, to his skills development and can even be a motivating factor for his employees.

Following this, it is interesting to ask ourselves about How to assess the motivation of a candidate?

The motivation

But what is motivation? It is important to specify that there are 2 types, the intrinsic and the extrinsic. The first is the desire to succeed for yourself, while on the contrary the second is the desire to succeed for others. These can be complementary to working within a team even if it can be even more difficult to determine it before hiring.

Now, let's go back to motivation in general, if the cover letter is a classic, more and more recruiters no longer ask for it... and for good reason, if it gives you a first glimpse of it, it is often universal and not very personalized. The ideal is to organize a upkeep (in video or physically).

It is an essential part of this process. However, be careful not to confuse motivation with potential. To help you, we have also written an article highlighting 3 best practices for evaluating a candidate's potential.

1 - Identify strategic issues

Because of this, it is impossible to imagine an interview without questions. This is why we advise you to prepare them in advance. However, be careful to respect the privacy of individuals. So what can you ask of a profile. Here it is a few examples :

• What can you tell me about our company?

The purpose of this question is to determine whether he prepared and therefore researched the company prior to the interview.

• What did you learn from the job description?

His answer can show you whether the candidate has taken into account the expected missions or other criteria.

• How do you see yourself in our company in 5 years?

A profile that is not projected within your organization in the future will rarely be in line with your expectations.

• What was the activity that you enjoyed the most/least about your last experience?

The question can allow you to ensure that the future tasks to be carried out on a daily basis will keep him motivated.

• Why did you leave your old job? Why do you want to leave your current position?

The answer can guarantee that the candidate thought carefully before making his decision and does not intend to go back to his old job.

• Why did you apply for our job offer?

The information that will come from this is essential, since this is when the talent will really explain their motivations to you.

Asking strategic questions will help you form an opinion

The objective here is to determine their personality and to detect whether or not the candidate has researched the company before the interview in order to ensure that they really want the job. In addition, when a candidate is genuinely interested, they will always tend to ask you questions for more details.

However, it is not possible to ensure the veracity of all his words. This is why, do not hesitate to discuss certain negative aspects of the position, such as the lack of resources to meet the objective or the possibility of exceeding the legal working time.

Based on your answers, it should be easier to assess your motivations, but it is not the only analysis that can be done.

2 - Analyze non-verbal communication

Indeed, the questions are based only on declarative, but the human body also speaks about itself consciously as well as unconsciously. For example : a talent may indicate that he is energetic on his resume but what is the real situation? This is why companies have chosen to recruit without a resume.

Analyze sound non-verbal language can give you an idea about the candidate's image, especially about his manners if he were to be in contact with customers.

Then focus on :

• Does his gaze, do his eyes follow yours? Or are they fleeing from them?
• Does his posture stay straight or does he let himself go on the chair?
• Is his attitude really listening to you? Does he take notes?
• his voice, what tone does he use and at what volume does he speak to you?

4 things to pay attention to

Its reliability is limited since a job interview (face-to-face or not) can very well be stressful for some profiles, and conversely, others may have excellent speaking and selling skills.

Maybe as a recruiter, we should put in place a more comprehensive way?

3 - Establishing a demanding candidate path

As you will have understood, it is difficult to identify the motivation of a candidate. A significant element if you have the means to do so is to set up a demanding candidate journey. That is to say, conduct one or two interviews, or even five, with different actors in the company so that everyone can give a constructive opinion. Coupled with that, you can test your candidate with various tests.

La Professional situation for example. If you are hiring a manager, present him with a realistic situation in his role. The aim here is to know his potential behavior with his future team. You will be able to determine whether he is showing leadership or not. A practical test may also be requested.

Another possible test is theAssessment, a real tool of recruitment 3.0, it is a method of evaluating skills. In the form of a questionnaire, candidates answer questions in order for the company to generate results. However, most of them may seem time-consuming.

After several years of R&D with researchers in Psychology and Neuroscience, we imagined Yuzu : one New Generation Assessment Center, specialized in the assessment of soft skills (the famous soft skills).

With Yuzu, talents are immersed in scenarios developed with the latest technologies of the Video game.

The evaluations, on the other hand, are accessible to all profiles thanks to simplified orders and cloud technologies (all you need is a computer and an internet connection to be evaluated).

Test the soft skills of your candidates with Yuzu

The advantages of our solution:

• One candidate experience exceptional for boosting your employer brand;
• A solution accessible to all to ensure equal opportunities;
• A decision support tool to detect and promote interpersonal skills.

Whether it's for your recruitment process Or of internal mobility, we are transforming the assessment of Soft Skills In a moment Loud and playful.

Be careful though, following all of these tips to the letter makes your recruitment process particularly long. This is why it is necessary to ensure that it is experienced as best as possible and in line with the requirements of the position in question. The risk here is to scare away profiles, whether they are good or not. Logically, motivated talent will be more likely to accept them, which will prove their interest in joining your company.

Bonus - Pay attention to spontaneous applications

Until now, we have been interested in determining the motivation of a candidate once selected for an interview. However, some people do not wait to find a job offer before submitting their application. Indeed, good communication does not only bring customers.

That is why it is important to know the 3 essentials for attractive recruitment but also to know How to recruit in an original way in order to attract profiles who truly appreciate your structure. We are obviously talking about spontaneous applications. These talents may not be the most competent, but you cannot question their motivation. In addition, it will improve your candidate pool.

To remember

Hiring a motivated candidate is a guarantee of trust for the company, as they will certainly pursue a career there. This is why even if recruitment evolves every day, it must be as effective as possible. However, this does not mean that the cover letter is a thing of the past, but it is only one tool among many others. You will need to define a more sophisticated process to find your A-Players.

Thanks to this article, you were able to learn the different techniques to assess the motivation of a candidate during a recruitment process. The first being identify strategic questions during an interview, because without this, it would be impossible for you to learn more about one candidate.

The second beingAnalyze your non-verbal communication, which could give you an even better idea of his personality. The third being to establish a demanding candidate background to ensure you get the most motivated talent.

Finally, the last one is to Pay attention to spontaneous applications since it is the profiles themselves who come to you to find a position.

Each of its methods has its pros and cons. It is important to take them into account and to think effectively about what can be put in place, especially since they can be complementary. However, do not lose sight of the fact that it is you, as the recruiter, who will be in the best position to assess this motivation. After that, your recruitment will ensure the sustainability of your business.

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