How do you ensure your organisation is securing the top talent newly on the market? The UK’s labour market is still very much candidate-led. And, because of that, organisations need to be proactive and decisive to ensure they snap up the best candidate for the role, and are not pipped to the post by their competitor. Keep reading for our ten top tips for interviewers.
Laying the right foundations
Before we get to the interview stage, there are few things you need to get right to get those applications in.
Analyse your leaver data
Before advertising your vacancy, you need to consider why you have to recruit for that role. For example, do you need to backfill the role due to an employee leaving? If so, we need to understand why that person left. Was the role too big for one person? Was there not enough challenge? Hiring managers should review data from exit interviews to consider the answers to these questions and, if necessary, rejig the role and its responsibilities. Take advantage of this step, or you may risk returning to square one in a few weeks.
Job adverts need to be well written
It’s very easy to fall into the trap of advertising a role just with information about the company and the department, or conversely miss the background information altogether. Job adverts should be interesting and informative; they should capture the interest of someone who might have scrolled through dozens of jobs before they reach yours. You should clearly articulate the role responsibilities and requirements and also shout about the benefits they would receive!
Work on your EVP
This is a larger, ongoing piece but should be on the radar of an organisation’s leadership team. An EVP (Employee Value Proposition) is essentially what an employer pledges to give to an employee in return for their work in terms of remuneration and workplace experience. An EVP should feel authentic and highlight that the workforce is a valued asset. EVPs have a direct impact on how an organisation is perceived; if EVPs give an organisation a good reputation, they will be more likely to attract applications from a high calibre candidate.
Read on for our top 10 tips for interviewers.
Top 10 tips for interviewers
So, you have advertised your vacancy, received the applications and shortlisted your candidates. Here are 10 tips for interviewers on how to become a great interviewer so you can select the right candidate to join your team:
1. Change the balance of power
Interviews should be a two-way process: a dialogue. Employers are, of course, assessing whether the candidates are suitable. But from the other perspective, candidates are also assessing if this is the organisation they want to work for and if they can work well with their prospective manager. One of our top tips for interviewers, therefore, is to be aware of this dynamic. This will allow interviewers and interviewees to establish a positive working relationship early on.
2. Be friendly, warm and welcoming
Hiring managers should acknowledge that formal interviews can be a daunting experience for some candidates and cause a lot of anxiety. Great interviewers should aim to put candidates at ease. Hiring managers can do this through small gestures such as welcoming candidates with a smile, offering them a drink and asking how their journey was. One of our tips for interviewers, therefore, is to avoid going straight into formal questions and answers and instead establish a positive, safe environment at the start of the interview. It’s important to create an excellent first impression, because you are representing your company as the candidate’s potential employer.
3. Find the best setting for the interview
The third item in our top tips for interviewers sounds relatively obvious, but it’s something that can often be overlooked. Interviewers should arrange for a quiet space to hold their interviews. It’s key that interviews are held in a private location and not somewhere public where the discussion could be heard by other employees or customers. If the interviews are somewhere busy with lots of passers-by, the candidates may become self-conscious and fail to effectively communicate their abilities during the interview. It’s the interviewer’s role to get the best out of the candidate and enable them to really showcase their skills during the process.
4. Provide background information
Provide lots of detail about the company (history, how it operates, the culture) and the role (the responsibilities, day-to-day tasks, the department) to allow the candidate to make an informed decision about whether the position is the right fit for them. The time the interviewer takes to run through these details will help to put the candidate at ease rather than asking them to talk first. This background information could be described as the interviewer’s ‘sales pitch’. However, remember this needs to be an authentic representation of the company. One of our tips for interviewers therefore is to ensure you don’t oversell or over promise, as new employees will only feel disappointed in the long term.
5. Prepare, prepare, prepare
Number five in our top tips for interviewers is to prepare! It’s not just the candidate who should prepare ahead of an interview. As an interviewer, you should also do your homework. This should include reviewing the candidate’s application (application form/ CV/ cover letter) and being aware of their experience before meeting them. This will mean that candidates will not need to regurgitate their employment history and will be pleased that you’ve invested time in them. This will demonstrate to the candidate that you value the time and effort they have put into the process. In addition, establishing the basics ahead of the interview will free up more time to get under the skin of the candidate’s ability and assess their suitability for the role.
6. Pre-plan questions
Another key take away in our top tips for interviewers is to take time ahead of the interview to compile a series of questions which are relevant to the role. Interviewers should aim to pose a mix of different types of interview questions. For example, behavioural questions will help us understand how a candidate performed or reacted to something. These often start with ‘tell me about a time when…’. Also, situational questions focus on hypothetical situations in the future. These are good questions to compare candidates’ responses to the same problem. Always link the questions to key competencies required for the role (e.g. organisation skills, time management, resilience).
7. Follow a structure
Best practice tells us that scoring interview answers is the fairest way to determine who should be offered the role. The key thing to remember is that each candidate should have the same opportunity to answer consistent interview questions to showcase their knowledge and experience. Number seven in our tips for interviewers is to follow a structure. It makes it is easier to score each answer against set criteria, but try to avoid being too rigid.
8. Actively listen and be patient
It’s important to give your candidate sufficient time to answer a question you’ve asked them. You should avoid the temptation of interrupting and allow candidates to provide their answer fully, to ensure their thought process isn’t disrupted. Some interviewers feel frustrated if they think the candidate knows something but can’t find the words, but it’s not helpful to interject because we won’t know how the candidate was going to answer. Tip number eight in our top tips for interviewers is therefore to ask probing questions to prompt candidates and help them on their way. For example, “why do you think that approach didn’t work?”.
9. Clearly outline next steps
From the candidate’s perspective, the most frustrating thing about a recruitment process is waiting to find out how an interview went. They’ve been through the journey from application, shortlisting and now interview. A way of mitigating this is by being proactive during the interview and clearly outlining where you are in the process. Another of our tips for interviewers is therefore is to tell the candidate when interviews are due to conclude, how many candidates you have left to see, whether there is another interview stage or if you’re looking to make a decision following this round. You should also confirm when the decision will be made and when they will hear from you (or whoever may be contacting them).
10. Be decisive
In the current labour market, you must make quick decisions. This doesn’t mean that the decision should be rushed or hurried through, but interviewers shouldn’t drag their feet following the conclusion of an interview process. It’s easy for the demands of our day-to-day role to take precedence, however the risk of not being decisive could mean that the best candidate for the role gets snapped up by another company. This would result in the hiring manager returning to square one in the recruitment cycle, putting direct pressure on your existing team while the vacancy remains open. The tenth of our top tips for interviewers is therefore to make sure you allow time after interviewing all the candidates to think carefully about who you wish to appoint and once you’ve decided, make the offer promptly.
How to interview someone well
Our ten top tips for interviewers gives you some guidance on how you can become a great interviewer. Keep in mind that it’s more important than ever that interviewers make a great impression with prospective new employees. There are so many opportunities out there so organisations need to ensure they are doing everything within their control to attract the best candidates.
Another of our top tips for interviewers is to take a step back and see the interview process from the candidate’s perspective to truly understand the recruitment experience. Prepare appropriately to maximise the value of the interview process. This can be done through reading applications, cover letters and CVs but also planning the structure and contents of the interview itself, rather than just ‘going with the flow’. Great interviewers should try to get the best out of the candidate and create a safe space for them to share their knowledge and experience.
Finally, it’s key to be decisive and if you identify someone who could be a great fit for the role, make them an offer as quickly as possible! We hope you found these tips for interviewers helpful. For support with your next hire, contact our team on 0330 223 5253, we’d love to hear from you.
