How to Interview Candidates Effectively

As the employment market improves, candidates have more options, hiring the right person for a job has become increasingly difficult. Pipelines are depleted and more companies are competing for top talent. Today, applicants have more information about a company’s selection process than ever before since career websites like Glassdoor & Indeed have taken the mystery out of interviews who allow jobseekers to pen their interview process experience as a review for others to know. If your organization’s interview process is a turn off for candidates, then they may not be interested in applying at your company.

At Multi Recruit our job is to assess candidates but also to convince the best ones to why they should apply at a company. Mentioned below is how to make an interview process work for both stakeholders (employers & jobseekers).

How to Prepare for Interviewing a Candidate:

Prepare your questions: Before you meet candidates face-to-face, you need to figure out exactly what you are looking for in a new hire so that you ask the right questions during the interview. Prepare a list of interview questions so that all questions to know a jobseeker better are asked without fail.
Reduce Stress: Candidates find job interviews stressful because of the many unknowns.
- What will my interviewer be like?
- What kinds of questions will he ask?
- How can I squeeze this meeting into my workday?
- And of course: What should I wear?

But when people are stressed, they do not perform well. We recommend taking pre-emptive steps to lower the candidate’s stress and anxiety levels.

Tell people in advance the topics you would like to discuss so they can prepare.
Be willing to meet the person at a time that is convenient for them.
And explain your organization’s dress code if any.

Our Team at Multi Recruit will coordinate this for you. Our goal is to “make them comfortable” so that you have a productive, professional conversation & the candidate has a great interview experience.

Have a set of Interview Panels ready: When making any big decision, it’s important to seek counsel from others so invite a few trusted colleagues to help you interview. We recommend you having three levels of interviews. The HR, The Tech round (if it is a Tech job role) and the Senior Management or Decision maker round which is the final interview. The lesser the number of interviews the better the conversions.
Assess based on potential: Allocate around one or two hours for the first interview. That amount of time enables you to really assess the person’s competency & potential. Look for signs of the candidate’s curiosity, insight, engagement & determination.
Ask for real solutions in your interview: Try to assess how the candidate would handle real life situations related to the job. Explain a current problem your team struggles with & ask the candidate to walk you through how he/ she would solve it. Or describe a process your company uses and ask her to identify inefficiencies.
Consider “cultural fit,” but don’t be obsessed on it: Much has been said about the importance of “cultural fitment” in successful hiring. And you should look for signs that tells you whether the candidate will be comfortable at your organization or not. Think about your company’s work environment and compare it to the candidate’s orientation.

Is he a long-term planner or a short-term thinker?
Is he collaborative or does he prefer working independently?

Your perception of a candidate’s disposition is not necessarily indicative of whether he can acclimate to a new culture. What you really want to know is if they can adapt to your company culture?

Sell the job: If the meeting is going well & you believe that the candidate is worth wooing, spend time during the second half of the interview selling the role and your organization. “If you focus too much on selling at the beginning, it’s hard to be objective. Most of the selling would have already been done by our team at Multi Recruit however the candidates would love to hear the same from you.

Here are a few Principles to Remember for interviews:

Dos:

Lower your candidates’ stress levels by making them comfortable, telling them in advance the kinds of questions you plan to ask
Ask open ended question that assesses on behavioural & situational questions & less of close ended questions
Sell the role & the organization only once you are confident in your candidate.

Do not:

Do not forget to do pre-interview prep — list the attributes of an ideal candidate & use it to ask relevant questions.
Do not involve too many colleagues or interview panels in the interviews — multiple checks are good, but too many people the process is not a good idea. Too many cooks spoil the broth.
Do not put too much emphasis on “cultural fit”. Remember, people adapt!
Do not have too many interview rounds, this will put off the candidates.

Once you have the interview conducted successfully you need to identify tasks that would help you in assessing the candidates and find your ideal hire.

If these strategies are applied, then this valuable information can help improve a hiring process and optimize future candidate experiences. There are so many ways for companies to differentiate themselves as an employer of choice, however the top challenge will always be staying ahead of competition and ensuring that jobseekers find your organization better than others.

This Blog is part of a series which aims to answer commonly faced challenges in recruitment.

Please click on the links to know more about essential tips on hiring sucessfully:

How to Interview Candidates Effectively

How to Prepare for Interviewing a Candidate:

Here are a few Principles to Remember for interviews:

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