For several hiring managers, conducting interviews in general can be rather stressful. We are responsible for choosing the correct person for the position as well as for the organisation. Getting interviews of a higher quality requires preparation and structure to ensure that you are gathering consistent candidate information.
There is an appalling lack of effort given to the systemic approaches at building improvements into this process. We remain lulled by former habits.
Thus, interviewing is the cornerstone of finding and recruiting the best candidates for your organisation. However, it can be a difficult process. An effective and smooth candidate selection process will help you make things easier and will lead to a higher interview quality. This will project the correct image for your company to your candidates, employees as well as consumers.
In this article, we will explain 7 steps to help better and improve your interview quality.
1.Dedicate Time to Building Your Brand
Companies such as Google, Microsoft, Nike etc were featured extremely high on Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work list based on employee ratings. These are well-known throughout the world, and have a positive employer brand which helps them attract and retain the best possible candidates as they engage their applicants early on. This brand building begins before the application process, and it is necessary to stand out amongst your competitors by carefully crafting your image. Distribute this message on social media, websites, blogs, press releases, job advertisements, employee review sites etc.
2.Create a Smooth, Efficient Application Process
It is integral to ensure that first impressions are made well. In several cases, this begins with the application process. This is because this is the first time that any potential candidate is exposed to your company. You need to be clear with what you want, and specify it in your job posting. Itd necessary to define the elements that are integral for the success of your role, and to highlight them. Avoid having a lengthy and complicated application form. Make sure it is easy to do and smooth in its process.
3.Narrow Down Your List of Candidates
Use skill assessments to screen your potential candidates based on soft and technical skills. Skill assessments aid in the empirical and objectivity aspect of your selecting process. According to the Harvard Business Review, tests prevent interviewers from accepting or rejecting candidates based on conscious or unconscious biases. Technical skill assessments can help you figure out which candidates have the correct hard skills, and soft skills can highlight the candidates EQ and cognitive capabilities.
4. Optimization of Your Interview Process
Interviews are the most important part of the candidate recruitment process. Be selective. Cut down on costs and time by conducting interviews online. Especially after the covid-19 pandemic, video interviews have become the normal practice. Optimise the interviewing process by doing structures/semi-structured interviews. Delve into specific topics based on the applicant’s experiences. Lack of structure could easily lead to biases and biassed decisions. Provide all the essential data to give the candidates a chance to prepare well such as-
- Duration of the interview
- Scope of the interview
- The correct link/address of the interview
- Time and Date according to the timezone
- What candidates should bring to the interview
Ensure that all the candidates have a positive experience at your company, even the candidates who will not be hired.
Also read: How to Measure Interview Quality?
5.Personalise The Experience
A generic interview process can be conducted by anyone. However, a personalised interview selection process will give the candidate validation by the employer and will provide the recruitment executive with a 360 degree perspective of the candidate. Make sure to ask interview questions that tap into both passion and potential of the candidate. Pay specific attention to the personal and professional areas that are highlighted in their application and work your way into talking about these points in the interview. Ask them about the company culture from their point of view. Thus, this will lead to a better quality interview and building of trust/rapport with the candidate.
6.Automate the Hiring Process
Automation of steps during the hiring process can be simplified. This will aid you in reducing overall costs, improving the efficient and quicking the pace of the selection. This results in a positive candidate experience to attract top candidates. Skill assessments, scheduling interviews, performance evaluations and ranking of the candidates can be automated.
7.Analyse Your Process
In the event that the selection process did not pan out the way you thought it would, it is imperative to analyse the reasons why to learn lessons for the next time. Thus, being able to measure success is such an important part of the optimization selection procedure. Tracking the successful hires is integral, which very few companies are doing, so it will benefit you the most.
Employees are the frontrunners of your company. The golden key to selecting the right candidates is to have a good interview process. Increasing the quality of your interviews will ensure that your company has successful hires and avoids bad hires. Analysis of your interview and consequently improving it will help your company’s overall success. Barraiser is committed to ensuring a smooth selection process and thus we highly recommend these 7 steps for a higher interview quality.
