Part 4 of 4 in the Hiring Right series
The Interview Tips & Tricks for Managers
Before conducting interviews, familiarize yourself with skills-based questions, behavioral interviewing techniques, and strategies for eliminating biases. Here are some great resources for that:
- “How to conduct a job interview”: https://www.indeed.com/hire/c/info/how-to-conduct-a-job-interview?hl=en&cc=US
- “How to Take the Bias Out of Interviews” by Iris Bohnet. This article discusses the limitations of unstructured interviews and their poor predictive power for on-the-job performance. https://hbr.org/2016/04/how-to-take-the-bias-out-of-interviews
Also, anticipate the questions interviewees might ask you. Here are some questions to consider having the answers to:
- What’s the company culture like?
- Why is the position open?
- What do you like about the job & what don’t you like about the job?
- How did you get into your role?
- What are the goals and expectations of the role? What are the metrics of success?
- What’s a day in the life like?
- How does the company support work life balance?
- What is the company’s perspective on ESGs (environmental, social, and governance)?
When meeting with your candidate, treat them like a client or a customer. Sometimes they will be your customers, and always being a good human means acting with kindness. I’ve been employees by people who eventually became my employee. I’ve also had employees leave my company, go into leadership roles elsewhere in ways that I eventually work with them again. The same can be true of candidates. Whether it’s a phone screen, video interview, or in-person meeting, make a positive first impression.
Here are some helpful tips:
- Lighten the mood and help them relax by dialing down the formality. Remember that the candidate is likely nervous, which can cause them to be more guarded or less authentic.
- Show Genuine Interest: Ask them how they are doing. Let them know that you’ll be taking notes, and occasionally, you may pause or ask questions in between. This humanizes the interaction and puts them at ease.
- Allow the candidate to ask you questions. Treat the interview as a mutual exploration. Just as you’re assessing them, they’re evaluating you and the company.
- When closing the interview, outline the next steps. Let them know what to expect in terms of follow-up or additional rounds.
- If the candidate isn’t moving forward, provide constructive feedback. If they lack specific skills, ensure your questions highlight those gaps. If you’re unsure whether they understood, ask again.
- Avoid leaving them in the dark. While you need to be tactful about the reasons for not proceeding, you can still communicate respectfully. Remind them that you have other interviews and specify when you or your recruiter will follow up.
- Be honest but avoid making commitments you may not be able to keep. If the candidate performed exceptionally well, unless you’re ready to extend an offer, don’t promise them the job.
Remember, a well-handled interview process reflects positively on your organization and contributes to finding the right fit.
Of course, please please please, from all of us who have been in the interviewee’s seat before. Please do follow up and make sure the person knows within a few days whether they will be moving to the next step or not.
If you have been interviewing and you are not finding your right person, consider whether the combination of knowledge, skills, and abilities exists in the marketplace. Whatever you do, don’t settle! Settling has detrimental effects to your entire team. If your team is suffering because this role is vacant, you need to step up your efforts in hiring. If you have found that the qualities you are looking for are not available in the market (at least not at a rate you can offer), then you need to consider whether you can reshuffle work around to adjust your requirements. Consider working with your manager on breaking up the role or closing the gaps by offering training. If you do adjust your requirements, you need to go back to your posting and open up your role again from scratch.
Once you know who you’d like to offer, do not neglect to check your network for insights into the candidate. Seek out people you may know who may have worked with the candidate who can give more candid references. Don’t discount someone just because someone else didn’t like the way they approached work in the past, but seek to understand and determine whether the historical situation will be of impact in the future ahead. Take all variables into consideration.
Once you’ve found that stellar candidate, close that candidate and fast! Remember, they were interviewing you just as much as you were interviewing them. Be honest and set appropriate expectations. Don’t oversell the job or your company, because if you do, they will be disappointed in the first few days or weeks. Find honest ways to get them excited about the work enviornment. Sometimes I find it particularly hard not to oversell the role because I genuinely love what I do and it shows. It’s easy to talk about how amazing my bosses are, the CEO’s vision, and the greater things we do to bring a human element to work. The best part? The people I work with are simply awe inspiring. We hired the right people. Won’t it be great to say the same? Put in the effort. You’ve got this.
In case you missed them, check out the other posts in the Hiring Right series
Hiring Right: Crafting Effective Interview Questions
Hiring Right: Don’t be a Victim to Your Blind Spots
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