Interviews. They are the best marketing tool a company can have.
It’s your chance to showcase your company, its values and most importantly, how it treats its people.
So, given their importance, how experienced are your interviewers? Have they been provided with formal training and support? For many, it’s not their day job, and they don’t actually like interviewing.
That’s understandable.
A few points to help
Hold no more than 4 or 5 interviews in a day. It’s tiring, and you need to be as fresh for the last as you were for the first.
Be prepared. Know who you are interviewing and the role they are being considered for, and ensure you’ve thoroughly read their CV beforehand (not during the interview).
Be punctual. Introduce yourselves, and provide an outline of the interview structure. Have a timekeeper, allow candidates time to ask questions and not feel rushed.
Aim to have a minimum of 15 mins between each interview. This allows for any overrun and saves the embarrassing “candidate cross-over” if in person. Use this time for a wrap-up, complete notes, and compare scores whilst they’re still clear. Also, have a refresh of the next candidate’s CV.
Create a scorecard, and if there’s a panel, agree who’s asking what. Don’t ask too many questions, it shouldn’t feel like an interrogation. Think about the weighting of each question and discuss what a good answer looks like – this will help with consistency across the day.
Poor candidate experiences are being splashed across every social media platform.
I’ve heard too many instances where interviewers were distracted, more interested in their laptops or phones, were so late that the candidates felt rushed and didn’t have sufficient time to answer the questions, and the all too common 5 + rounds of interviews asking the same questions…..
Every candidate, regardless of the outcome, should feel they have participated in a professionally run interview stage and been given due consideration, which creates a positive impression of your business. A business they would not hesitate to work for or recommend to others if the opportunity arose in the future.
Remember, interviews are not just for you to decide if a candidate is right for your team. They are also an opportunity for the candidate to decide if you are right for them…. and this could be the difference between an offer being accepted or rejected.
Tangerine Orange offers interview support and training to all our clients. We also chair interviews and conduct wrap-up sessions for those wishing to concentrate on their roles – asking the questions, listening, and engaging with each candidate, confident that all the logistics are being handled.
If you are in need of interview support or recruitment advice contact Jo Bell for a chat.
