What interviewers need to know to conduct effective interviews?

8 Tips on How to Conduct an Effective Interview (2022)

The goal of interviews is to hire the right talent – the best candidates for a specific job. However, conducting an interview can be challenging, but hiring the ideal candidate makes the process worthwhile. Coming up with the right strategies, structure, and preparation on how to conduct an interview makes all the difference in your company’s hiring process. However, the majority of recruiters assume they know how to conduct an interview and hence fail to plan effectively.

Conducting interviews is just one step in the hiring and recruitment process where preparation and structure are paramount to make the process successful. Establishing and implementing a specific system that acts as the basis of your hiring decisions will ensure your company overcomes interviewing pitfalls, identifies and hires the right people for the job.

If your main aim is to hire the best candidate, then it’s vital that your interviews are thorough and well planned for in advance. Knowing how to conduct an interview also includes knowing how to prepare for the meeting. Consider using the checklist below as you prepare to interview candidates.

How to prepare for interviews

1. Review the job description
The job description typically provides the criteria that can be used to hire candidates. Consider reviewing the requirements of the position and determining if it accurately reflects the qualifications, skills and other abilities that match the needs of the company. Additionally, this helps you to understand exactly what you need and the criteria that best suits the decision making process when choosing the right candidate.

2. Review candidate’s resume
Don’t just glance at a resume for a split second or minutes before an interview. How will you know or understand a candidate’s qualifications, skills or credentials within this short time? How will you be able to ask intelligent questions concerning the candidate’s accomplishments? How will you create rapport, a friendly environment or a compelling conversation when you don’t know much about the person in advance?

3. Practice your pitch ahead of time
Come up with a general structure of how you intend to conduct the interview to ensure that you have enough time to go through all the critical areas during the discussion. Consider the fact that interviews are like a double-edged sword, meaning that as you assess the candidate, s/he is probably assessing you also. And the impression you make will determine whether the candidate will want to work with your company or not. Therefore, it’s the work of the hiring manager to convince a candidate that working with the company will be an excellent experience, and increase the chances of candidates accepting your job offer.

Plan and come up with a checklist to sell your company and the position you’re hoping to fill. Include points such as:

• How does your company ensure it achieves its goals or mission.
• How does your company ensures employees are happy, motivated, and grow and develop in their profession.
• Challenges employees face in the role and how the company supports the employees, e.g. training or mentoring.

4. Prepare the relevant interview questions

It’s handy to prepare a list of interview questions that are relevant to the position you are hiring for. Deciding on the interview questions you intend to ask candidates takes up a significant part of the preparation process. Consider using the tips below to come up with practical questions:

• Pay attention to behavioral and situational questions.
• Avoid cliché questions since they provide canned answers.
• Focus on candidates who can bring different perspectives to your company, rather than just being a cultural fit.
• Tie the questions to the job requirements. Consider tailoring the questions to match specific skills that you are interested in.

Additionally, ensure that you prepare follow-up questions to help get details beyond canned responses. In practice, follow-up questions are guaranteed to provide more revealing answers as compared to standard questions. Listen to the candidate’s response then follow up with why, when, how, who or what questions.

5. Practice with different interview formats

While conversational interviews ensure a pleasant experience for both candidates and interviewers, they aren’t the most effective when it comes to selecting the best candidate for a role. On the other hand, using a structured interview format can make the process feel like an interrogation but can also produce the right results. Consider choosing the interview format based on your company’s culture. Alternatively, you can opt to strike a balance between a conversational, unstructured format and a structured interview format to get the best out of the interview.

Consider the fact that structured interviews are better predictors of job performance while unstructured interviews provide a platform for the hiring manager to create rapport with the candidate, as well as provide room for the candidates to do a self-analysis. This offers more room for the hiring manager to come up with more thoughtful questions that will prompt the candidate to open up and speak more freely.

6. Ask for a second opinion

The hiring process is a risky endeavor for the company. How sure are you, as the hiring manager, that you have selected the right candidate? What criteria did you use to choose the right candidate? Moreover, is there another alternative you could have used to ensure the person you hire is the ideal fit for the role? The answers to these questions are in consulting. Hiring a new employee is a big decision and shouldn’t be decided upon alone.

Consider seeking a second opinion from other people in the organization such as your boss, HR representatives, other hiring managers or even supervisors. Remember the goal is to ensure that you hire somebody whose goals align with the plans of the company. Consider asking for advice concerning the following aspects:

• Establishing and implementing your interviewing checklist
• How to build rapport with candidates
• Reviewing the interview questions
• Giving feedback and sending rejection emails to candidates
• Conducting mock interviews to enhance your interviewing skills

7. Be prepared for candidates’ interview questions

Consider the fact that great interviews should be a two-way street. Therefore, encourage candidates to ask as many questions as they possibly can about the company, the role or the duties and responsibilities that come with the job position. Note that an excellent candidate is one who takes this opportunity to ask intelligent questions about the company culture, current or future projects and the expectations of working in the company. Additionally, candidates who ask questions demonstrate interest and enthusiasm for joining your company as well as the fact that they have done their homework.

8. Mention the next step in the hiring process

At the conclusion of the interview, ensure you state what will happen next. Don’t leave the candidate guessing. Explain what will happen next and how you plan to do it. If you promise candidates that you’ll call them, make sure you call them; if there will a second round of interviews, inform the candidates. There’s nothing worse than not getting feedback from an employer after all the hard work candidates put into their job application.

Additionally, ensure that you follow through with what you assured candidates you’ll do. Consider the fact that candidates’ experience during the hiring process has the power to either create good or bad publicity for other potential candidates or even your customers.

Ensure that you always have a strategy and plan for the recruitment and staffing process even before you put out a job listing because this will ensure that your company maintains the best candidate experience, which means you’ll be more likely to get applications from the top candidates in the industry.

Did you find this helpful? Comment below and tell us how you conduct interviews.

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