Interviewing Techniques - A guide for Employers

As an employer it is vital that you recruit the right candidate for the right role, but making sure you gain relevant, factual information when interviewing can be difficult.

“The goal of an interview isn’t to catch candidates doing something wrong, it’s to learn as much about them as possible. Focus on putting them at ease and listening respectfully. The more relaxed they are the more open and forthcoming they will be.” Clare Normanton, HR Director, Eurostar

We have outlined a few tips and pointers to help you conduct effective and informative interviews.

The most important aspect of an interview is the style of questions you are using and whether they are appropriate to the information you want to find out, using the wrong style of question can be misleading to you and the candidate.

Question Styles

Closed questions tend to close a candidate down. If used well, they establish useful facts:

“What class was your degree?”

“Did you complete it?”

“How many new customers did you win last week?”

However, closed questions are often used badly, e.g. “Did you enjoy your last job?”, “Did that lead to promotion?”, “Would you describe yourself as computer literate?”

These are bad questions as they are non- factual assertions of the candidates, you should always seek for a candidate to substantiate their assertions with a past example or factual information.

Open questions are designed to encourage the candidate to talk, and to broaden out areas of information. They encourage frank disclosure in candidates, and should seek evidence of actual experience. Open questions may start with WHY, WHAT, WHERE, HOW – but a good opener is always “Tell me about…”

Probing questions are generally more complex and can be used when a candidate is more relaxed, e.g. “Tell me more about the problems you faced”, or “Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult team member”, leading to very high order questions such as “What would you say was your greatest achievement?”

The key thing to remember when choosing how to phrase your questions is what kind of information are you looking for.

Factual: Use closed questions i.e. How long were you in your last position?
Factual with Expansion: Use open questions i.e. Why did you choose to leave?
Insightful: Use probing questions i.e. Tell me why you feel you are right for this role?

Top Tips for Interviewing

Here are some simple steps to avoid common interview mistakes:

- Prepare thoroughly, make sure you have a good understanding of the job

- Get your administration in order – have all the paperwork and the meeting logistics organised well in advance.

- Explain the format, style and timeframe of the interview up front

- Focus your questions on job-related evidence

- Don’t ask too many closed or leading questions

- Make sure to move beyond the information on the CV or application form

- Probe the candidate’s claims, especially skill assertions

- Establish and check all important facts, and summarise

- Make sure all your questions are relevant, comprehensible and lawful

Bearing these points in mind will help you to make the right choice when interviewing and comparing candidates, and ultimately lead to making the best choice for your team / business.

At Key Appointments we want to supply you with relevant and useful information, if there are topics you would like more information on then please email us at info@key-appointments.co.uk