During the recruiting process, there are few tasks tougher than conducting job interviews. You have to speak with candidates and find useful information that will help you decide if a candidate is the right person to bring onto your staff.
Interviewing isn’t an exact science by any means, but some strategies have proven more effective than others. If you want to find the best workers for your company, start with these tips.
Actually read the resume
Applicants usually spend hours perfecting their resumes and practicing for interviews, and you also have to prepare for the conferences by researching the candidates. The first time you read a resume shouldn’t be when you’re in the same room as the worker, because you won’t be ready to discuss specific information.
Read resumes carefully before interviews and take notes so you remember to ask about certain points. For instance, if you notice an employment gap, you should have the interviewee explain why he or she had a break between jobs.
Additionally, taking time to review resumes beforehand allows you to verify what candidates wrote. Contact their references and look for social media profiles to ensure that applicants were completely honest. If there are any discrepancies, you should bring them up in the interview.
Follow a schedule
As you would for any professional meeting, you should create a clear structure for interviews. To that end, Inc. Magazine recommends using the following system:
- Introduction: Use small talk to introduce yourself and help the candidate relax.
- Behavioral questions: Ask specific questions that are designed to teach you how an applicant thinks and about his or her experience.
- Wrap-up: Allow interviewees to ask their own questions and then explain the future steps in the recruitment process.
Think about how you want an interview to go so you can design a structure that suits your preferences. Once you know want to achieve, outline a schedule for the conference so you know how to progress through various steps.
Take a team approach
In some cases, you shouldn’t be the only person to interview a prospect. The Houston Chronicle explains that you should involve managers and staff members in the conference because they’ll have unique perspectives on a potential hire. Having an abundance of feedback will allow you to choose the best candidate for a job.
Ask the staff and management who would like to participate in interviews. Stick with high-level employees because others likely don’t have the experience to differentiate between strong and weak applicants. Once you have a team in place, have them prepare together. Assign different roles so that every interviewer won’t cover the same topics. For instance, one manager can be responsible for asking about experience, while another supervisor can focus on behavioral questions.
These tips can be useful in creating an interview guide that will help improve your process and consistently find the best workers to bring aboard. Taking the time to research candidates, creating a schedule and building an interview team will allow you to strengthen your staff.
Related: Everything You Need to Know About Behavioral Interview Questions »
