Tales From The Other Side - Improving Your Interviewer Techniques

When it comes to securing the best talent for your business, the interview can be the most important element. While it’s important for the candidate to perform well, there’s also a lot of pressure on you as the interviewer to do a good job.

Does your interviewer technique need some improving? If you’ve always done things the same way or you’re finding that you’re no longer attracting the best of the best, a change could do you good.

Take a look at the following pointers for improving your interviewing technique to help you bring the best candidates into your company.

Change the way you advertize

Before you can start improving your interview technique, you need to make sure you’re getting the best applicants in the room. Job hunting remains competitive, but businesses also have to fight to attract the best candidates. Make your recruitment advertisements stand out and make sure you attract the best of the best.

Experiment with new ways of interviewing

The typical job interview – candidates sat opposite a panel of interviewers – can be daunting for many. Interviewing for a job is nerve-wracking as it is, without the intimidating setting of a common job interview. Why not mix things up? Instead of using the same tired questions, try exploring new ideas to help you coax the best responses from your interviewees.

Learn more about the candidate

A significant proportion of an interview involves finding out about someone’s skills and experience, but what about their personality? You could have the best candidate on paper, but that doesn’t guarantee they’ll be the best fit for your company. By getting to know your candidate’s interests and hobbies, you can learn far more about how they’ll fit in with your company to help you get the truly pick the right person for the job.

Listen

‘The interview process is a tricky one. You’re often scribbling notes down and thinking about the next question without truly listening to what the interviewee is saying. Being an active listener will help an interview go smoothly, and will allow you to think of more reactive questions based on what you’ve already heard. Follow-up questions are great for delving deeper into a candidate’s experience, and will help coax out answers that they might need help expressing. Make plenty of eye contact and be encouraging – they’ll feel more at ease and will make the interview a more pleasant experience for all of you.

While an interview is undoubtedly more daunting for the person being interviewed, as the interviewer, you need to make sure you’re doing what you can to give them a fair chance while making sure you appoint the right person for the job. Build up your techniques as an interviewer to help you attract the best of the best to your business.