The end of school and start of summer means that new applicants are entering your talent pool. It’s an exciting time, both for your company and for the recent graduates. There’s an abundance of tips for the new workforce, but tips for hiring managers aren’t as obvious, which is way it’s so important to remember good interviewing tips as the employee.
You know it all starts with a strong job description, explaining the essential functions of the role as well as the skills required. You’ll post the description on numerous platforms and in turn receive the candidates’ applications, but then what? You’ll evaluate their initial responses, screen the candidates, and determine if they should move to the next level: an interview. Interviewing is where the rubber hits the road. Through the interview process, the focus shifts. Instead of trying to screen people OUT, you now want to focus on screening the candidate IN – how will the fit in my organization? But in order to do so, you need to make sure you’re approaching it the right way. From my experience, the biggest mistake that interviewers make is that they talk too much. An interviewer should only talk about 20 percent of the time. Give the candidate the opportunity to shine and demonstrate their fit. It’s human nature to want to talk too much during stressful situations or to want to make people feel at ease, you need to let the potential employee use this time to showcase and highlight their skills.
To best do that, you need to be prepared: know what you’re going to say, what questions you’re going to ask, and what you’re looking for from the ideal candidate.
There are a number of styles of interviews that can be employed to reveal different characteristics and skills. By pinpointing what you want to discover in the interview, you can plan appropriately for how to organize and steer the process. One-on-one interviews are the most traditional methods and allow for both parties to get a good feel of each other. Group interviews are great to see how people interact in team settings and can handle different personality types. Whichever interview process you select, you’ll want to make sure to focus the questions so you can determine if the candidate fulfills the hard and soft requirements of the position.
For more tips on how to conduct your interviews, visit stopknockingonmydoor.com to schedule your free consultation.
