When being interviewed, it’s easy to feel that you’re the one who has to do all the work.

But as a recruiter, you know the truth is that you put just as much work into planning the perfect interview as anyone else!

Your reputation is on the line as much as any candidate’s. The success of your business depends on your success at sussing out the top talent to grow your team.

So in order to help you prepare for any interview, we’ve assembled the best practices you can use to ensure you hire only the best! Let’s have a look…

1. Know the answers, not just the questions

Before any interview, you need to assemble a list of questions that you will pose to the candidate during the interview.

But why bother asking any question if you don’t know what type of answer you’re looking for?

Don’t just come prepared with a cookie cutter questionnaire that you think seems like good fare for the interview. You need to understand WHY you’re asking these questions, and WHAT sort of answers you are expecting from qualified candidates.

Start by understanding what an ideal employee looks like, and work backwards to ensure that your questions will give candidates an opportunity to confirm they are a match.

2. Be fair and compliant

It is important that our interview questions are fair and unbiased.

Not only does this help us ensure that we are not asking anything illegal (like age, religion, gender, medical history etc.), but it also allows us to judge the candidates qualities objectively.

Make sure your questions comply with your local labor laws. Staying neutral will prevent any fallout, whether intentional or not. And it will make the real question about their value as a worker and nothing else.

3. Analyze their analytical mind

Even though you should know what sort of responses to expect to your questions, it doesn’t mean you have to be looking for a specific answer.

Asking more open-ended problem-solving questions will give you insight about their analytical mindset, without pigeonholing them into your immediate expectations.

The answers you get may astound you — and it will give them an opportunity to show off a more well-rounded idea of who they are and what their values and priorities are. And when you find someone whose values and priorities match your own, you’ll know you’ve found a quality candidate.

4. Ask about adaptability

Your business needs someone to fill a certain position right now. But that doesn’t mean that the nature of their involvement won’t change with time (just like your business does).

Seek out topics that they can use to describe their adaptability to new and possibly surprising changes in their working life.

The pandemic is a great example of a time that everyone needed to become more fluid and adapt to changing climates — both at work and at home.

Ask about times they’ve taken on new projects, or what ways they’ve developed themselves by learning new tools and strategies, or even about times things didn’t work out how they expected and how they reacted to it.

5. Explore emotional intelligence

Not every question has to be about the mechanical aspects of work. It’s just as important to learn about how they handle the social and interpersonal aspects of work life.

Emotional intelligence refers both to one’s self-awareness, as well as our ability to empathize and understand others. Asking questions which highlight their emotional intelligence will help you understand how well they will fit in with your team, and with clients.

Ask about how they give and receive feedback, both positive and negative, from others. Discuss concrete examples from their professional history, and what they felt then versus how they feel looking back — growth is a big indicator of emotional intelligence, too.

6. Don’t stay static

Nobody’s perfect. And no interview formula is perfect, either.

We need to hone and improve upon our interview questions over time. 

And while it’s important to try to stay consistent from interview to interview, it’s not okay to ignore any glaring issues with your interview format. If a line of questioning isn’t providing the answers you want, or a certain phrasing is confusing to candidates, then it’s time to scratch it or upgrade it.

Conclusion

ReStart is always available to recruiters to help make the entire process easier.

Whether you want help to learn more about designing an interview, or want help with finding more quality candidates, we can help!

Talk to us today and start finding the top talent for your growing business.