Interview best practices
Interview training
While structured interviews are great, they’re only as good as the training that accompanies them.
It all starts with proper training, which many employees don’t get before they are tossed onto an interview team. Everyone on the interviewing team needs to understand why you’re doing structured interviews and how to do them well. Some of the key trainings the hiring team needs to execute effectively are:
Interviewers should know how to prepare for the interview, open the interview, actively listen, and effectively probe further upon a candidate’s response. They should also be informed of legal aspects of interviews, as there are questions they should be sure to avoid. Interviewers should focus on job-related qualifications and abilities.
Make sure interviewers understand their role in the interview process, how to ask the questions assigned to them, how they should rate the candidate’s responses, and what to do when the interview is completed. You may also want to provide some guidance on what you expect the interviewer to do if they determine early on that the candidate isn’t a fit for the role. Remind them why a positive candidate experience is important.
Notes can be a terrific source of information to discuss differences between candidates who scored similarly on the interview. But when, and in what format, should an interviewer take notes? Will the information need to be read by others, or is it just there to help the interviewer recall details? The interviewing team should know the answers to these questions. Depending on what tools your organization uses (Perform, ATS, Google Doc), make sure it’s standard for all interviewers on the hiring team.
Interviews across each candidate should be consistent. There should be some time at the beginning of the interview to build rapport with the candidate – they’re humans and they’re most likely nervous! Interviewers should check in to see if the candidate needs a quick moment to collect their thoughts or grab a glass of water. Some other best practices include:
- Use multiple interviewers per candidate and use the same interviewers across all candidates for the role.
- Ask each candidate similar questions.
- Establish a shared understanding of “good” responses.
- Limit prompting, follow-up questions, probing, and elaboration. Probing questions can be helpful, but too many creates inequity in which questions candidates receive and what kinds of opportunities they have to elaborate on their answers. If the interviewer prompts one candidate more than another, that first candidate has more opportunity to elaborate.
- Ask quality interview questions (such as situational or behavior-based) that will yield the results you need to make a hiring decision.
- Allow time for candidates to ask questions at the end of the interview.
- Do not discuss candidates between interviews.
Even with the best intentions, a structured interview can go in the wrong direction if the interviewer isn’t paying attention to their nonverbal behavior. Help them understand how they should sit (posture), where they should look, whether they should nod their head, being aware of their facial expressions, etc. Interviewers should be warm, professional, and enthusiastic, as they represent the company to potential hires.
Head, Heart, Briefcase
It’s important to remind your interview team that a candidate is more than their resume. To better understand their fit for a job, interviewers need to assess their behavioral drives and cognitive ability (head), their values and interests (heart), along with their knowledge, skills, and experience (briefcase) throughout the hiring process.
