You start to think about the interview. What is the best way to get the most out of a limited amount of time to assess someone for a job that you’ve never met before? How many people need to be part of the decision-making process, and what role should they play. How will you know if a candidate is right for your job? How do I conduct an effective interview?

The candidate's perspective. 

The job market is improving and should continue to improve as the world returns to a new normal. Candidates perceive and, in some cases, do have a more excellent choice of jobs they could apply for. Furthermore, thanks to the internet, applicants can now seek more information on you, the company, and the selection process than ever before. Websites such as Glassdoor offer detailed content about the interview process at almost every bank and company. 

It takes two sides to make an interview effective. Preparation is critical if you want to make the most of the limited time you have together. Your role will be to work out who will best fit your business just as the candidate is assessing you and asking themselves, is this an organisation where I can be successful?

The job description should drive the whole process in addition to a competency matrix of your current team. Pull out the competencies from the job spec and any skills or knowledge that the team lacks that you need for your business to run successfully. An easy example might be dealing with customers in China. Still, no one in the group speaks mandarin. When you have a complete list of competencies and knowledge, figure out what is essential and trainable and the business’s capacity to train the new person. Your questions will derive from the complete list of competencies and knowledge, and you’ll add questions on motivations towards the end. You’re not looking for a candidate who has done the job you are hiring for today. You need someone with the skills, knowledge and intellect to do the job now and grow with your business in the future. 

An effective interview guide is a set of fair interview questions that cuts bias and assesses the candidate’s ability to do a job. Use it for every candidate interviewed for a specific job. 

Go through the interview guide. Whilst it is essential to ask the same questions to every applicant, it is also necessary not to deliver it in a stilted fashion. 

Although candidates prepare for the meeting, there is still room for unnecessary stress due to the unknowns. What will my interviewer be like? Who else be in the interview? Will I run into anybody I know getting into the meeting room? What kinds of questions will they ask? How can I get out of the office? What should I wear? It is perfectly reasonable to put candidates under pressure during an interview but set them up for success. To get the most out of each interview;

Provide the topics you’d like to discuss in advance. It’s better for you if the candidates come prepared.  

Ask candidates what times are most convenient for them. 

Describe the company dress code. 

Assure them of the confidentiality and bring them to a floor away from the team for the interview. 

With knowledge, the candidate can prepare for the interview giving you a greater chance of having a productive meeting.

When deciding on a new hire, it’s essential to seek counsel from others. It may be a person the role provides a service to, your boss, Human Resources or a person from the team. You may need to get buy-in on the new hire or just have multiple checks in place to ensure you make the right decision. In any case, only choose people essential to the decision-making process and don’t draw out the process unnecessarily. Remember you may have competition for this candidate. A good interview experience pays off when it comes to an offer.

 

At Symmetry, we use behavioural interviews to assess a candidate's skills and knowledge. We look to the past to answer questions on how they may contribute in the future. Be prepared to go deeper if you're not satisfied with an answer. Separate the winners from the spinners and put candidates under pressure by asking for real solutions. 

If you're hiring a quant, give them a current situation in your business and ask them to present their results back to you. You’re interested in how they construct their argument and not if they got the same result your business provided. Ask questions to make a candidate tell or show you in detail how they have applied themselves in the past to a similar situation. Questions like what are your weaknesses might have their place, but they are predictable. Asking a candidate to describe a time when they made a mistake at work, and the result of that error might tell you more about their integrity, self-awareness and ability to learn. 

Where a candidate sees their career heading is vital for motivation. If they can build skills for their longer-term goals in your position, then you have a happy employee. If they come in and discover they're not able to learn the skills they need for the future, they’re going to leave or, worse, stay and become disgruntled. 

All of my clients discuss cultural fit as essential for successful hiring, usually just before the topic of diversity comes up. There are aspects to a companies culture that will be important to get right but don’t overplay it. Think about your company’s work environment and compare it to the candidate’s orientation. Can they work in a complex global structure? Is the person collaborative, or will they prefer working independently? But be careful of the judgements you make on these points. What you want to know is can this person adjust.

If the interview is going well, you need to build interest and excitement for the job in the candidate. Spend time during the second half of the interview selling the role and the company. You will not be objective if you start the discussion by giving too much information on the role and company. But once you are confident in the candidate, there is no harm in telling the person why you think they are a good fit, looking for their buy-in along the way. It is like a new romance, you like them, and you try and see if they like you. Ask them if there is anyone on the team they would like to meet. Sometimes it's best to get people working in the environment to discuss the day to day. Peers give a different perspective to the company, which may be more relatable to the candidate. It also offers a prospective candidate the ability to start forging relationships. 

Do:

• Lower your candidates’ stress levels by providing the topics you will discuss in advance. 
• Make the interview robust and fair by building an interview guide and use it for every candidate. 
• Ask structured behavioural and situational questions.
• Sell the role and the company once you’re confident in your candidate
• Do close with positive statements. 

• Make assumptions during the interview
• Put too much emphasis on cultural fit people adapt.
• Involve too many colleagues in the interview process, multiple checks are good, but too many people and your decision making suffer. 

I hope this has given you something new in conducting an effective interview. If you believe the experience you give jobseekers applying for roles with your company could be improved, you might find this article, "6 tips for a better candidate experience" useful. Please leave any comments below. If you’re a candidate looking to prepare for an interview, read more here.