What more could you want after planning the perfect interview process, but to pair it with the perfect interview guide and getting your panel involved in the discussion early so they are just as ready and on board with the plan as you are. Nothing, really…except for the perfect candidate! Well, I’m glad to hear you feel that way too, because that is what this post is all about.
Let’s start with the interview guide. A thorough interview guide can be the difference between hiring someone with the right behaviours and skills or worst case scenario someone without the skills at all. With any style of interview, you’ll design your guide slightly differently. As a panel or one/one interview are the most common, we’ll start with a plan that covers them.
What you can ask:
✨ What motivated them to apply - this helps you to understand their reasons for making a change
✨ How their past experience makes them suitable for this role
✨ What attributes do they pride themselves on that are relevant
✨ How their experience aligns to the values of your organisation
What you can’t ask:
🚫 Questions that contravene the Equal Opportunity Act 1984, such as
🚫 Anything that is based on age (ie you can’t ask them if they plan to retire soon)
🚫 Anything about how their family life might affect their ability to attend work or if they plan to have children
Along with what you can and can’t ask, it's important to make sure your questions are open-ended and flexible. I encourage you not to decide what the answer should be, before you ask the question. You would be surprised how often I think a question is worded perfectly and yet the candidate doesn’t understand.
Questions should also be behavioural based, this allows you to get both what they can do but also how they do it. Here’s an example:
❎ Standard question: What’s your experience with Excel?
✅ Reworded question: Tell me about a challenging report you had to prepare using Excel, what was the challenge and how did you use the system to solve the problems?
Do you see how you can get so much more out of a behavioural style question, if they don’t have experience with Excel, you’ll find that out quickly enough. But if they do, you’ll find out so much more about how they use it and also deal with problems!
Finally, the unsung hero of hiring is ✨ attitude✨
No matter how great someone’s experience is, if they don’t have an attitude that works well for your business, they will never be a great hire. So when in doubt, hire for attitude and teach the skill!
The final piece I wanted to share with you today is how important it is to prepare the others on the interview panel. If you want the interview to be the best it can be, take the time to get everyone on board. Meet with the panel prior to the interview and talk about your individual roles.
✨ Who is going to welcome the candidate
✨ Who will talk about the role and the organisation
✨ What will the order be for asking questions?
✨ Ensure everyone feels comfortable to dig deeper even if they haven’t asked the question
✨ Discuss how you want to wrap-up the interview
You’ve done it! You’ve planned your interview, booked them, prepared the guide and your panel. Now it’s time to meet the candidates! That’s up next!
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