Getting the interview questions right
For businesses, it’s not easy finding the right person to fill a vacancy. Recruiting can be expensive and time consuming and therefore you want to get it right. You have a short window with each recruit to really get to know them and establish if they are the right fit for the role. So how can you ensure that you are getting the most out of your candidates and of your time and investment?
The key is to have a strategy for recruiting and a plan for the interview. For smaller businesses who don’t have HR departments it may be the first time you have recruited or you may do it very sporadically if you have a small team. It is an expensive process both from an advertising/agency perspective and the amount of your own time that you have to invest in the process. That’s not even considering the cost of training an employee to do the job effectively. So you need to do it once and do it well! Preparing for the interview will ensure you make the most out of the small window of opportunity that you have with each candidate.
Write a list of questions
It is important to have a clear list of questions that you can ask the interviewees. You won’t want to read them script fashion but if you start with the easier questions and build up to the deeper questions then you can at least have a guide to follow. Don’t ask cliché questions for the sake of it. Your business is not the same as every other business out there and whilst there are similarities and guides as well as useful advice from sources like graduate jobs site 10minuteswith.com there isn’t a rule which says you need to ask a question because it’s what everyone asks. What you need to ascertain is their suitability and fit within your company, therefore the questions need to help you to get the answers to this.
Make it a comfortable situation
Ensuring that the candidate feels at ease during the interview process will mean that you get the best out of them. If they are too hot, thirsty, have a dry mouth or are a bag of nerves they won’t engage as comfortably. Offer them a drink when they arrive – make sure there is a glass of water on hand for them. You could even pour them a glass just in case they are too polite and refuse.
Engage the candidate
The key is in the way you set up the interview. You want the tone to be formal, but you want the conversation to flow – not be stilted and awkward. Start with the easy questions which will help to make the candidate relax a little and then you can build the questions throughout the interview. If you have read the candidate’s CV and have a copy in front of you then you will be able to ask them questions around their hobbies and interests which will help you get to know them and see things like how passionate they are about their hobbies and indeed how they spend their spare time.
