22 Jun 2023
Decisions to make, questions to ask, and the fear of getting it wrong can make interviewing a daunting process to be involved in. After all, the costs involved in recruitment can be substantial; hiring the wrong person can be very expensive, especially if you don’t realise it until the new hire has started work with you.
We’ve set out seven steps for you to follow next time you’re faced with the prospect of hiring new staff, in the hope that your interviews go well and you make the right choice:
1. Have a Job Specification / Job Description
Whether you call it a job spec, person spec or job description, make sure you have a document which outlines a. the job you are interviewing for, and b. the skills required for the job. It doesn’t have to be a lengthy document, and it doesn’t have to cover every single aspect of the job. Just include the primary tasks/responsibilities of the job and the specific skills they need to be able to perform each aspect of the job to the standard you need.
2. Prepare your Interview Structure
It might sound obvious, but make sure you and any other interviewers are clear about the way the interview will run. A typical structure will be:
3. Prepare your Introductory Questions
For some interviewers, this seems odd, primarily because they are great at opening and having a discussion with candidates, which enables them to gather the correct information. However, we would always suggest a set of questions be prepared so that you can reasonably compare candidates after the interviews are all done.
You should have a set of opening questions which, while breaking the ice, will also give the candidate the opportunity to talk freely and help them relax. These can include things like:
4. Prepare your job-specific questions
Now that you have a set of skills for the job, you can prepare questions related to each skill. We suggest having a couple of questions for each skill, just in case one isn’t relevant for a specific candidate. Try and write ‘open questions’ to give the candidate a chance to talk, rather than ‘closed questions’, which could lead to a ‘yes or no’ answer.
A good example of an open question is:
“Can you tell me about a time when you worked as part of a team?”
A question like this can then lead you to ask further questions about their role in that team, how they supported their colleagues, and the part they played in helping the team deliver its objectives.
Closed questions can, of course, be used if you want to double-check a specific element of their work experience or if you need to bring an element of the interview to a close.
5. Work out how you’ll make your decision!
Before you head into your interviews, you should be clear about how you will decide who will get the job. You need to be clear about essential and desirable skills from your job specification and any weightings that might apply to each to help you compare candidates in the most objective way possible.
We all know that after a whole set of interviews, you could plump for a candidate who doesn’t have all the skills you are looking for, but who might show real potential or has other valuable skills to bring. This is fine, but it’s a great idea to be at least able to reflect on what you defined as ‘success criteria’ during the interview process, so you can draw as much information as possible from candidates and assess their all-round suitability.
6. Have a Practice Run
Some of you may think this is overkill, but it can be helpful, especially for double-checking that your questions make sense and to help build your confidence if you are new to the interviewing process.
Many of you interviewing may have 7 or 8 lined up in a day, and you need to be sure that you keep interviews to a specific time limit. On that basis, it’s always helpful to see how long a practice interview lasts. If it gets anywhere near your time limit, you’ll probably need to review the number of questions you plan to ask. Bearing in mind some candidates can talk, and talk, and talk, you need to be careful that you don’t overrun, which can have the effect of either making you rush through other interviews or put your other candidates off as they have to sit waiting in reception for an hour.
7. Check out the Interview Room
Finally….we’ve heard of so many situations where a lack of preparation has led to poorly handled interviews, not least because of the environment in which the interview is held. Obviously, check for tables and chairs and ease of access for people with disabilities, but just as importantly, check for anything that could interrupt the interview.
If there are phones in the room, make sure they are switched off or unplugged, and if you can, spend some time in the room checking for noise levels. Holding interviews in the middle of a busy and noisy factory doesn’t really work well. If you have a standard time for fire alarm tests, then make sure you avoid interviewing at that time.
If you follow all the above, you’re well on your way to running a great interview session.
