What is a Walk in the Park interview? by Bob Hoffman, Managing Partner Kennedy Executive Search Ireland

Everybody will admit that job interviews are probably the most artificial way to get to know somebody. If you ask candidates, clients and anybody in the HR and recruitment industries, they will tell you that the current interview model is not ideal.

We use competency-based questions to see if our candidates are generally suitable for the role, but any good recruiter will only put forward candidates that largely have the skill sets to do the position advertised. Assuming the candidate can largely do the role, any areas that there is a gap can be catered for with on-boarding and on the job training. Thus, the interview really boils down to chemistry and culture. Every company creates its own culture and it’s important for candidates to get a sense of what their potential employer’s culture is like and will it suit them personally. Regards chemistry, this means will the candidate get along with their potential line manager and vice versa.

So really the main push for an interview is to understand the potential candidate’s personality and yet due to legitimate DEI and GDPR changes in recent years, we are not allowed ask a large range of questions that can help to understand a person’s personality and perhaps would they be happy in the client’s work environment.

I am in Executive Search recruitment for nearly 10 years now and from day one I have been advising that when clients have identified their preferred candidate, and before they make an offer, that they should conduct a ‘Walk in the Park’ style interview. I am lucky in that my office is 50m away from Dublin’s most beautiful city park, the breath-taking St. Stephens Green. I suggest that my clients meet their preferred candidate in my office and leave their bags and baggage with me and walk across the road and spend an hour in the park. I advise them to try and avoid talking about business. It is amazing that sitting on a park bench watching children play and ducks waddling past and discussing sports, favourite holiday destinations and great movies, will quickly confirm to both parties as to whether they would enjoy working with each other.

Of course, it could be a coffee or a lunch, but cafes and restaurants can often be noisy places, and I find that being out in the open in a park is hard to beat.

Sometimes one of the two parties will get confirmation of perhaps a small concern they had about the other party, and it can result in one party withdrawing from the process. This is a setback but ultimately both people have dodged a bullet, and the recruiter will move on to the next preferred candidate.

This is not rocket science and we do this all the time in our personal lives in social situations. Nobody has a crystal ball as to how candidates and employers will ultimately treat each other but by starting with a very down-to-earth experience like a ‘Walk in the Park’ interview, means that both people are starting off on the best foot possible.

Kennedy PartnersAugust 7, 2024