While it might generally be the consensus that the pressure is all on the applicant when it comes to job interviews, every business leader knows that this isn’t necessarily the case.
This stage of the recruitment process is vital to ensuring that, as a company, you get the right person for the job for a number of reasons.
From making sure that the person you’re thinking of hiring isn’t simply trying to “blag it”, to reassuring yourself that they will fit in with your existing workforce and are suitably qualified – it’s essential to make the right decision, as the wrong one could end up costing you time, money and – at worst – good workers who become unsettled.
Prepare
In order to go into any interview with your eyes wide open, time spent preparing questions is very well spent.
Ideally, you should have a generic list of questions to ask every candidate with regards to how they will handle to role you are offering within your business to help you judge whether or not they are well suited to it.
It is also a good idea to prepare a few unique questions for each individual candidate you are going to be speaking to – this can be done by gleaming information for their resume or application form and asking them to go into more detail.
This not only allows you to have a better insight into what sort of person you are interviewing, but will also impress upon the candidate that you have taken the time to learn a little bit about them – which can certainly go a long way in helping them make a decision about whether or not they want to work for you.
Sell yourself
While this is advice often given to a candidate, it applies equally to the interviewee. The best people out there will, by definition, be in demand and it is not uncommon for someone to turn a job offer down on the basis that they’ve had a better one elsewhere.
In order to prevent this from happening, you need to use part of the interview to tell them why your firm is such a great place to work for.
This is actually a great way to break the ice at the start of an interview. Instead of launching straight into questions, begin by telling the candidate about why they need to nail their interview to land the job with you.
Perks like mobile working are becoming more and more popular as an incentive for workers, with a recent report by Deloitte highlighting how much staff are beginning to value flexible working practices to help achieve a positive work-life balance.
Make sure you get everything you need
In order to make the best use of your time, it’s important for you to have no questions remaining by the time the interview is over.
If a candidate doesn’t give you an answer in the detail you require, don’t be afraid to push them on the issue.
Try to ask open-ended questions to give applicants the best opportunity to tell you everything you need to know and remember to take notes if you can – you don’t want a bad memory to impact on your decision making later on.
