Learning how to be a good interviewer is essential for any hiring manager, as it helps you to recruit and select the best candidates. You can ensure that they are well-suited to the position and will be a good cultural fit.
A successful interviewer is skilled at delivering structured interviews that provide an opportunity for potential employees to demonstrate their skills and abilities in different aspects of the role.
There are several ways in which you can become a great interviewer and we have outlined our best practise in the blog below.
Preparation is key for an effective interview
Prepping for a job interview isn't just for the candidate. If you want the process to run smoothly you will also need to prepare yourself as the interviewer.
Unprepared interviewing puts a candidate at risk of seeming indifferent and can lead to a flawed evaluation of their suitability for a position. Every interviewer should go through several steps before holding any kind of face-to-face meeting to make sure that the entire process is conducted professionally.
Firstly, you should read through the candidate’s CV and have a copy at hand during your meeting with them.
Secondly, any portfolio work or other supplementary materials sent by candidates should be closely examined as well so that proper recognition is given to their efforts.
Finally, preparation could also include familiarizing yourself with basic questions and follow-up prompts related to the candidate's job and previous experience, making sure you are comfortable enough to ask questions on the spot during the interview.
Taking advantage of these simple steps will help you become an efficient interviewer and bring out the most accurate evaluation possible about potential hires.
Make sure you understand the role
As an interviewer, it is important to have a thorough understanding of both the role that needs to be filled and the organisation that you are representing.
This means researching the available position, how it fits within the team, and familiarising yourself with a comprehensive job description. Being knowledgeable about all the roles in the business will help develop your interview process from a standard set of job requirements, expecting more than just a list of previous experiences or tasks which may not be relevant.
With a defined role in mind, you can create potential questions and criteria specific to this role that are targeted to find the desired employee.
Questions should focus on candidates’ personal traits that would benefit them in the role. Things like their organisational skills, effective communication style, and attention to detail.
In addition, by discussing past experiences and challenges with them during an interview you will further demonstrate how well-suited they are for this particular position.
An interviewer who enters their job fully informed is more likely to hire the right person for the company than one without this knowledge.
Keep it structured
Unstructured interviews can be a great way for job candidates to feel more comfortable, but they aren't necessarily the most effective tool for making hiring decisions.
If your organisation is looking to hire the best person for the job then it's important to be methodical in the selection process.
While cultural fit is definitely important, the candidate needs to have the skills for the required job, particularly for technical roles.
A structured interview should be developed that centers around job-related questions and topics that are relevant to the position being filled. This will help ensure that hiring decisions are based on knowledge of the applicant's qualifications rather than subjective biases.
When creating an interview strategy, carefully consider each question you plan on asking.
Generic questions like “what's your greatest weakness?” are overused and generally don't result in constructive dialogue or useful answers from applicants. Unfortunately, brain teasers rarely provide reliable results either, despite their potential initial appeal to interviewer and candidate alike.
Ultimately, when using a structured approach during an interview, both parties will benefit from an efficient exchange of information where relevant questions are asked to find out valuable insights into applicants' skills and abilities.
Choose your questions carefully
As mentioned above, when it comes to hiring new employees, choosing the right questions to ask is essential.
Questions must be tailored to the specific role in order to assess candidates’ skills, job knowledge, and work history; this will help you determine whether they are the right fit for your organization.
In addition, behavioral and situational questions should be included in order to gain an understanding of how candidates handle challenging situations so that you can better assess their fit.
Preparing a list of questions beforehand not only allows for candidates to be compared more accurately but also ensures fairness and legal compliance by ensuring that all applicants are asked similar questions.
It is important that each question is carefully thought through as it can make or break your decision about a potential employee.
Interview with a colleague or recruiter
Interviewing candidates with the help of a coworker or recruitment consultant can be beneficial.
Often, a recruiter will conduct an initial interview or screening before the second stage with an employer. However, a specialist recruiter could also be a benefit during the entire process.
By pairing up in the interviewing process, you can share responsibilities and divide questions into different parts that will engage the candidate more thoroughly.
As one party speaks, the interviewer can actively listen and have time to formulate their next approach or question.
In cases of panel interviews, multiple coworkers can join as panelists to conduct a productive and organized conversation with the candidate.
This collaboration helps to hone in on specific skill sets while carefully observing a candidate’s overall work ethic and personality.
Furthermore, using two or more people for an interview increases efficiency since multiple people can assess a candidate at once instead of repeating similar conversations with each person separately.
Allowing at least one other coworker to participate in the interview body will add insight and amplify your ability to draw conclusions from potential successors.
Interviewing talent is no easy task, but having another colleague or recruitment consultant present eases some of the personal pressure while creating an environment that fosters positive dialogue among all participating members.
Maintain communication with candidates and treat them with respect
Being a successful employer starts with showing candidates that you care.
Caring about candidates’ experiences isn't just good for their overall impression of your company, it's also great for your employer brand and employee loyalty down the line.
It is essential to make sure that every applicant is given a positive experience even if they may not end up getting the job.
When interviewing potential candidates, creating a friendly and comforting atmosphere can go a long way in making them feel valued.
Opening the interview on a positive note and having someone greet them on time at the entrance can help set the tone for a pleasant experience.
Easing into the conversation rather than going straight into questions helps put them at ease so they are able to give full answers and be their most genuine selves throughout the interview process.
Be aware of unconscious bias and keep an open mind
Bias can compromise our judgement, whether it's conscious or unconscious.
Even the most experienced professionals can make wrong decisions, simply because of unconscious biases that cloud their thinking.
As interviewers, it’s essential that we challenge our assumptions and try to eliminate any potential bias in our decision-making process.
There are many training courses that teams can take to help remove this unconscious bias from our thinking and processes. One example is the Implicit Association Test (IAT) which is used to assess unconscious prejudices and provides you with an overview of any cognitive biases you might have.
Learning the various cognitive biases and how they might be affecting our judgement is important. Becoming aware of different types of bias such as groupthink or confirmation bias allows us to look out for them when reviewing candidates or conducting interviews.
Ultimately, understanding how prejudices work helps us improve our judgement in interviews and give each candidate a fair evaluation.
Take notes and use active listening
Notetaking is an important part of any recruitment process. It allows recruiters to keep track of all the information they hear and how each candidate performed against criteria for the role.
It also helps to remember which questions were asked in a particular interview and what answers were given, allowing you to compare candidates thoroughly once the interview stage is over.
For best results, it’s important to have a clear mind and focus on what the candidate says whilst making careful notes throughout.
To make it easier, you may want to use a scorecard to help assess candidates' answers, giving a numerical value depending on their response so that comparisons can be made more easily.
With these techniques put into practice, recruiters will be able to make better decisions when deciding which candidate would be perfect for the job.
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