An executive involved in the daily running of a business has to devote a great deal of his time to conducting interviews. However, there’s an appalling absence of effort given to methodical attempts at improving this procedure. Similar to how candidates spend their time preparing before their big interviews, interviewers also have to be ready to take time off their schedules to properly evaluate their candidates even before the interview. There are two aspects to any successful interview; preparation and conduction.
Preparing for an Interview
The lack of appropriate preparation for interviews is the biggest single mistake employers commonly make. Oftentimes, new and inexperienced business owners go into an interview only to discover halfway through that they haven’t prepared enough. Here are important tips to aid you to plan better before an interview.
Study Your Candidates
Make sure that before any interview you have dedicated enough time to meticulously study each resume. During the interview with the candidate, you must have a duplicate of the resume with you for reference, however; this shouldn’t be the time to question the candidates on their previous jobs or educational background. You could even go as far as doing a background check on your candidates. An employer can check on details such as education history verifications, social media screening, credit, driving records, and even criminal records. These days, individuals can get a criminal record check online, making finding criminal records much easier.
Develop the Ideal Job Description
Writing a thorough and specific outline of what potential employees would be doing when hired makes it much easier to assess candidates. This involves knowing exactly what you are looking for in a candidate.
Identify the Intangibles
A resume won’t identify all the intangibles that a candidate can bring to your company. You have to find out the behaviors you’d want from your employees. You could hire a point-of-sale guru who doesn’t work well with others. By knowing these intangibles early enough, you will be able to search for them.
Prepare Some Specific Interview Questions
Employers who don’t develop their questions ahead of time miss out on the opportunity to effectively assess candidates. To decide on what to ask, use your job description to ascertain which abilities are most crucial and should be evaluated during the meeting. Overused, generic questions such as “what’s your biggest weakness” won’t aid you in getting the information you want.
Conducting an Interview
Now that you’ve prepared properly, you are definitely in a great position to conduct a productive and professional interview. The tone of your interview generally has to be one of friendliness and helpfulness to reduce the barriers to open communication. Here are some tips to help in conducting an interview.
Properly Introduce Yourself
Courteously greeting candidates and introducing yourself not only shows you respect them but also helps in putting them at ease. You could even go as far as telling them something interesting or funny about yourself or your business. This is also the first impression this potential employee will have of you, so ensure that you present yourself well.
Set the Tone
It’s now time for you to set the stage by informing the candidate on what to look forward to in the interview. You have to know that you are also being closely observed. Your behavior sets the tone for the meeting. If you appear too casual to applicants, they won’t take the interview seriously. Being overly serious will make the applicant too nervous. In both cases, you are definitely not getting the best out of them.
Review the Position
Explain what the job involves in more detail compared to what was outlined earlier in the job description, so applicants can ensure that getting the job is still the right decision. You have to detail what the core responsibilities and duties will be, as well as any other working conditions they need to know.
Review the Candidate’s Resume
While you’ve studied the candidate’s resume, you still have to ask applicants specific questions about the past positions on their resume in relation to the position you’re about to hire them for. You have to ask them about responsibilities, job details, and accomplishments. Inquire about any gaps or inconsistencies in education or employment as there should be an explanation for this.
Allow Applicants to Ask Questions
Easily answering questions thrown your way means that you know every aspect of the positions in your company. Candidates should be allowed to ask their own questions to ascertain if the company and position are ideal for them.
When interviewing candidates, you’d want to know what kind of individuals they are, how they react under stress, how well they interact with others, and whether they’ve been truthful in their job applications. These tips will aid you in getting all this information.
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