Whether we love them or we loathe them, we need job interviews. We can all relate to the fear of being interviewed, but conducting job interviews may be just as stressful when done incorrectly.
Recruiting for positions is an expensive process, so if you value your time and your company, streamlining your recruiting processes and making the most of each job interview is critical.
Use pre-employment testing provider Skillsarena‘s 10 expert suggestions to become an effective interviewer and handle your next round of job interviews with ease.
Before the Interview
1. Identify Your Wants and Objectives
Don’t hire blindly. Before conducting interviews, know the position, skills, and applicant you require. By analysing your company’s recruiting requirements, you can optimise the recruitment process and improve the quality of your job interviews.
2. Ensure the Job Description and RJP are Clear
Your job description is a candidate’s first impression of the position, employer, and organisation – make it matter. Job descriptions should be precise and detailed about the position and essential abilities. Many applicants like a Realistic Job Preview (RJP) in the job description. From these, they learn about the job’s merits and drawbacks, what life as an employee might be like, and gain an insight into the position.
Job descriptions should be brief. Most job searchers scan recruitment ads and tune out within a few seconds, if not engaged. Use your company’s recruiting requirements to create a clear, short job description that attracts the right candidates. If you attract the best-qualified applicants, your job interviews will go more smoothly.
3. Use Pre-Employment Skills Tests
Pre-employment skills testing improves job interviews. Hiring managers may use skills assessments to weed out less-qualified candidates. This restricts and optimises your application pool, and expedites your interview process to include only the brightest potential employees. Every interview will be productive and rewarding; the only challenge will be choosing which outstanding prospect to hire!
Pre-employment testing reduces unconscious prejudice in hiring. It eliminates preconceived ideas and biased judgments, increasing talent pool variety. Diverse teams perform better, are more creative, engage more, and innovate more, thus there are no negatives to prioritising diversity in new hiring.
During the Interview
4. Have You Prepped?
For any interviewer, it is essential to know the candidates. Read the candidate’s CV, LinkedIn profile, and application form before the interview. Not only will this help you know the interviewee better, but it will also help you plan effective interview questions. This is an incredibly simple way to maximise job interviews.
5. Put Your Interviewee at Ease
Job interviews can be nerve-wracking for both new and seasoned candidates. Help your prospect perform better by easing them into the interview and alleviating their fears. Interviews should be professional discussions, not interrogations. Always introduce yourself, the organisation, and the job. Then they should explain to the applicant what to anticipate during the interview and the future stages. Let the applicant introduce themselves before diving into role-specific inquiries. By doing so, you’ll develop rapport (excellent for a favourable applicant experience) and create a high-quality interview setting. You don’t want to overlook a great applicant due to anxiety. Diamonds aren’t always forged under pressure when it comes to hiring!
6. Focus on Skills vs Experience
More organisations are abandoning conventional qualification and experience-based recruiting for skills-based hiring. Just as you wouldn’t hire a chef without tasting their cuisine, relying purely on education, credentials, and experience isn’t the best method to find high-performing personnel. Focus on a candidate’s skills and aptitude for job-specific duties and responsibilities. By doing this, you’ll weed out applicants who can talk a good game but don’t have the skills to back it up. This will make your interview process more efficient. Psychometric skills and personality assessments are simple and cost-effective ways to do this.
7. Evaluate Whether the Candidate is a Good Culture Add or Fit
Company culture is a buzzword for a reason. Workplace culture affects team productivity, morale, satisfaction, and reputation. As much as you should develop a strong corporate culture and hire individuals who share your values, you shouldn’t create an echo chamber of similar people, hobbies, and viewpoints. This reduces diversity and denies your company its advantages. Examine the applicant’s soft skills, behaviour during group interviews, personal experiences and beliefs, and non-job-related hobbies to see whether they would fit your business culture.
After the Interview
8. Debrief with Fellow Interviewers
If you’re doing your job interviews with coworkers, be sure to debrief afterwards. Five or ten minutes of comparing and discussing the applicant’s replies might assist in decision-making. One interviewer may see something another missed or provide a unique viewpoint that changes who you hire, thus a post-interview debrief is crucial.
You should trust your instincts when recruiting a new employee, however, you can’t ignore scores or interview performance. Compare interviewers’ answers, ratings, and behaviour to make an educated recruiting choice.
9. Even When Giving Rejections, Always Respond
It’s discouraging and distressing to not hear from an interviewer. We like to assume most employers wouldn’t ‘ghost’ their interviewees, but it’s not uncommon for candidates to not hear back from an employer. Whether you’re offering a position or not, always communicate with your candidate and give comments on their interview.
10. Gather Interviewee Feedback
Finally, submit a post-interview applicant experience questionnaire. This should ask about the application, interview, and (if applicable) onboarding processes at your organisation. This is a good approach to measure applicant experience and enhance your recruiting and interview procedures for years to come.