If you’re in a leadership role or in human resources, chances are you’ve interviewed potential employees. If interviewing isn’t something you do very often – or even if it is –practice and evaluating your techniques will help you hone this important skill. Interviewing is incredibly valuable because too often, early turnover and mis-hires cost organizations valuable time and money. Learn how to effectively assess whether a candidate is a good match for what your position requires.
Over the phone or in person?
Usually, only an initial interview is a phone interview as opposed to in person or virtual. However, try both methods; you may find that you prefer one over the other! For example, without having to deal with any visual distractions in a candidate’s appearance or expressions, you can completely focus on their work experience. You may also feel a little more comfortable asking pointed, direct questions over the phone in order to keep the interview on topic and moving forward.
Whether it is the initial or second interview, though, someone in the organization should definitely “see” the person before a hiring decision is made. Meeting a person helps identity intangibles such as whether the candidate will be a fit for your culture, as well as how they respond to arriving to a set appointment and evaluating their reactions. And consider interviewing in pairs. It is always valuable to get another person’s perspective to the same conversation. Interviewing in pairs also gives each interviewer a break and an opportunity to think about what question to ask next. We don’t recommend having more than two people interview a candidate at the same time. Having multiple people doesn’t allow each interviewer enough time to assess, and it can be much more stressful for the candidate.
Stop talking
Yes – you should definitely share lots of information with potential employees about the position, the department and the company – but you should NOT do it before hearing from the candidate first. Try instead to only give a brief initial overview of the position, only 1 or 2 sentences. For example, “This position is new to the organization and will be responsible for all recruiting, onboarding and training. There are two other people in the HR department, and this position reports to the HR Manager.”
A brief initial overview gives the candidate just enough to let them know high-level tasks and structure so they can hopefully connect their experience to your needs. Only after you ask all of your questions and once you know what the candidate has to offer, give another, more detailed overview of what the position requires. A detailed overview is important because it can give the candidate a heads-up that they are not a match (your needs are drastically different from what the candidate has experience doing), which can make the potential rejection process easier in the future. After your detailed overview, let them ask you questions to see what specifics they seem interesting in knowing about your opportunity.
Some interviewers spend more time talking than the candidate, which is a big mistake. They share absolutely all aspects of workplace dynamics, tricks of the trade, etc. up front – ultimately hints about what skills and qualities the candidate should say they have. The candidate should know just enough initially to give them the opportunity to connect their experience to your needs.
Get the details
Candidates often have “canned” answers to questions they think you might ask. In order to get more genuine responses, ask vague follow-up questions: What do you mean by that? Could you give me some examples of what you mean? What makes you feel that way? Describe specifically how you were involved in that project. Tell me more about that.
Don’t feel as though you have to come up with a bunch of different questions to ask during an interview. In fact – Lou Adler suggests you might only need 2 questions to separate the doers from the poseurs. Put the onus on the candidate to market and determine which of their skills and qualifications they decide to share with you.
Keep it Friendly… and Legal
During the interview process, be mindful of questions that may seem innocuous but are actually illegal because they give you information about protected employee statuses such as marriage, family, race, religion, etc.
Some examples of illegal questions and alternatives to consider:
Do Not Ask: Are you a US citizen? Where did you grow up?
Ask Instead: Are you authorized to work in the US?
Do Not Ask: What year did you graduate from high school?
Ask Instead: Are you over 18 years old?
Do Not Ask: Do you have a visual, speech, or hearing disability?
Ask Instead: Will you be able to perform the job’s essential functions with or without reasonable accommodations?
Do Not Ask: Are you married? Do you have children? What arrangements will you make for childcare?
Ask Instead: Can you meet the travel requirements for this position? Are you able to work the required hours?
Do Not Ask: Do you belong to a club or social organization?
Ask Instead: Are you a member of a professional or trade group that is relevant to our industry?
After the interview, make sure to keep in touch and also invite candidates to reach out to you, if they’d like, to get an update of where you are in the hiring process; again this puts the onus on the candidate and usually the candidates who subsequently follow-up show you which candidates are “go-getters” who have a lot of interest in your job.
Finally, try to maintain positive candidate relationships by being timely with rejections, either by email or phone – try the more personal approach by phone if the candidate has interviewed in person.
Whenever you communicate with a candidate, thank them and be appreciative of their time. Job searches take a lot of effort on their part. Thank them for their interest and their application initially, and then try to be accommodating when scheduling interviews to candidates who are currently working.
Being an effective interviewer takes practice and also knowledge on your part about what your positions require and asking the right questions. Take some time to review your interview practices to ensure you’re best meeting your organizational hiring needs.