Explain to the candidates what your requirements are then ask them to describe a piece of work they have completed which was comparable to that. Have them explain the issues involved, how they approached it what difficulties they had to overcome and what they would do differently in the future.
Since you're looking to recruit a number of people, I'd say that their ability to work together - personalities, maturity, compatibility are at least as important as skills and experience. So don't just pick the top X according to how they rank at interview, consider if you think they can work together as a team.
I like the second paragraph you had, making sure a team works well together is a huge part of it, but asking your candidates about a comparable project? I mean, on the one hand it is an amazing question because it forces the potential employee to relate and think, and their response will give you great insight into their thinking process, programming method, and give you the added bonus of seeing just how intimate they were in their previous projects.
On the otherhand, it smells like pump the potential for all the information you can get out of them before you decide whether you want to pay them -_- Which do you think it is more of, an assessment question or an pre-employee extraction question? And also, do you think that the person hiring will already be aware of the issues and approach-possibilities (thus allowing them to better gauge the person)?
It is very likely the customer service representatives who are offering those service blocks to better accommodate those customers are the better representatives who are actually trying to do a good job. And people wonder why customer service for some companies is so horrible, it is because of policies like this.
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Explain to the candidates what your requirements are then ask them to describe a piece of work they have completed which was comparable to that. Have them explain the issues involved, how they approached it what difficulties they had to overcome and what they would do differently in the future.
Since you're looking to recruit a number of people, I'd say that their ability to work together - personalities, maturity, compatibility are at least as important as skills and experience. So don't just pick the top X according to how they rank at interview, consider if you think they can work together as a team.
I like the second paragraph you had, making sure a team works well together is a huge part of it, but asking your candidates about a comparable project? I mean, on the one hand it is an amazing question because it forces the potential employee to relate and think, and their response will give you great insight into their thinking process, programming method, and give you the added bonus of seeing just how intimate they were in their previous projects.
On the otherhand, it smells like pump the potential for all the information you can get out of them before you decide whether you want to pay them -_- Which do you think it is more of, an assessment question or an pre-employee extraction question? And also, do you think that the person hiring will already be aware of the issues and approach-possibilities (thus allowing them to better gauge the person)?
It is very likely the customer service representatives who are offering those service blocks to better accommodate those customers are the better representatives who are actually trying to do a good job. And people wonder why customer service for some companies is so horrible, it is because of policies like this.