Check Your Interviewing Practice Before the Next Interview

The interview process is a high-stakes endeavor for a business; each session takes extensive behind-the-scenes work from HR and keeps interviewers away from their work for hours at a time. A solid interviewing practice makes it easier to find strong candidates, allowing you to save time, money and company resources.

Revisit the Job Description

The job description is the first line of defense in your company's interview process; it comes into play long before the first candidate walks through the door. A strong, accurate description helps weed out a percentage of unsuitable applicants and gives your HR team a framework for initial candidate selection. Before you begin a round of hiring, spend time with the job description. Discuss it with the outgoing employee and his supervisor, and identify responsibilities that have been changed, added or eliminated. Rewrite it as needed to improve candidate quality.

Determine Selection Criteria

A variety of people at your company have a stake in the success of a new job candidate, but not everyone can be at each interview. To ensure that each person's interests are represented, make a pre-hiring meeting a part of your interviewing practice. Discuss what each person needs and wants from the new employee, and determine the priority of each request. At the end of the meeting, you should have a hierarchical list of selection criteria to use when evaluating candidates.

Use a Mix of Interview Questions

Interview questions are a key component of the interviewing practice. Many of your questions should relate direction to your selection criteria, but it is also important to add questions that get at more intangible qualities. If the open position requires the candidate to think quickly in high-stress situations, you might ask bizarre questions, such as "If you were asked to unload an airplane full of jelly beans, what would you do?" Unexpected questions catch the candidate off-guard and give you the chance to witness his reaction to stress, his ability to think quickly under pressure and his problem-solving style. No matter which questions you choose to ask, best practices dictate that each one have a specific and measurable purpose. Be sure to pass the list on to your legal team in advance to ensure that it does not contain unlawful interview questions.

Create a Great Impression

One of the most important goals of an interview is to leave candidates feeling great about your company, whether or not they get the job. After all, many industries are like small towns: gossip gets around quickly and makes a lasting impression. To increase the likelihood of favorable word-of-mouth reviews, make positivity a part of your interviewing practice. When you treat each candidate well and express genuine enthusiasm about your organization, you can create ripples of goodwill that may reach future candidates, clients and industry partners.

A great interviewing practice saves time and effort for the company and each job candidate. Creating a set of best practices requires an upfront investment of time, but the end result can result in greater efficiency for years to come.

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