Recent visits to clients to discuss their recruitment needs have highlighted mistakes that are sometimes made when interviewing a prospective candidate for a role. It all comes down to the questions that are asked to obtain the information to make and informed decision in employing the right person.

We always question our candidates using a process that is structured to get the best information that we can. We find out a lot about a candidates background regarding their experience and skill level however we also find out a lot about them as a person. When they go to the client for their interview we feel that many clients do not develop their interview process to get the information that they need in order to make the right selection. We are stunned sometimes when we have sent a short list of candidates to our clients and they choose the candidate we would have categorized as number two or three and completely overlook our number one candidate. Sometimes we feel that the client interview had not successfully bought out the qualities that we have been able to source.

One common mistake is no structure to the interview and the interviewer just ‘goes with the flow'. This can result in the candidate taking control of the interview and leading the conversation to where the candidate wants it to go. Therefore sometimes the information that the prospective employer requires from the candidate, does not come out.

No structure can also result in the prospective employer spending most of the interview talking about themselves and the company and not asking enough probing questions of the prospective employee. There are many times when a candidate feeds back to us that they did not get much chance to talk and sell themselves because the employer did not ask any questions or allow them to talk.

The solution is to develop an interview process with questions that are open ended to draw out the candidate, on an experience, skill and personal basis. These questions should be structured into a format and every candidate asked the same questions so that you can compare them on an "apples to apples" basis.

 

In an interview the interviewer should start with a brief overview of the role and the company for 5 minutes maximum and then start with open ended questions.

During this time the interviewer should only be talking 25% of the time and the candidate 75% of the time.

 

Most people think that open questions are the: where, what, why, when, which, who how questions, however these questions attract a one word answer and do not get the candidate talking from an emotional level.

The questions that give you more information on an emotional level, start with:

Tell me about: yourself, your family
Give me a picture
Give me an idea
Describe to me
Tell me the key points
Tell me about the exciting things
Tell me about the worst things

The more you can have your candidate speaking from an emotional level about themselves the better you get the feel of them. Asking about their family and where they were brought up gives you an idea about the background they come from that has been the influence in the development of them as a person.

Finally outline to the candidate the challenges that will come up for them in the role and ask them to describe how they would manage those challenges. If the candidate is going to be working in an existing team, describe your culture and how your team functions both on the positive side and the negative and ask the candidate how they see themselves fitting into the team and your environment.

There are some sophisticated job seekers in the market who are well prepared for the job interview. To avoid costly employment mistakes it is important to have a solid interview process in place.