Gain the most from candidate interviews with insightful advice from our leading HR professionals.
As specialists in Human Resources Consulting & HR Recruitment, deliberatepractice understands the art of employee selection in a competitive contemporary market. Adopting the right strategies will help you to streamline the interview process and recognise high-quality candidates.
We understand how easy it can be to over-complicate the interview experience. deliberatepractice’s expert HR consultants recommend keeping the following key themes in mind to ensure a quality interview process:
Prepare
Entering an interview appointment with no real knowledge of the candidate’s resume, how it relates to the position, and a lack of relevant questions mars your entire recruitment process and ultimately, the final outcome. Contrary to the behaviour of a superior Talent Specialist, it also demonstrates a lack of respect for your candidate’s time, effort and value. Set aside a preparation period so interviews are meaningful for all parties and ensure the potential for an ongoing, mutually beneficial relationship. While successful talent acquisition relies on a multi-fold assessment process, a quality interview experience allows candidates to effectively showcase their professional experience and personal brand.
Respect Everyone’s Time
Make it clear you value the candidate’s time. Arriving late is highly unprofessional, as is pausing the interview to address another task. Interviews that are overly brief or run too long leave a negative impression, especially if the candidates are being seen sequentially.
Stay on topic. Eagerness to create connection can lead to time-consuming conversation. Keep the tone of the interview friendly, but professional. Don’t lose control of the situation. Make sure all essential points are addressed by the interview’s conclusion.
Build Rapport
Dominating the conversation by talking too much is a common mistake made by interviewers. Practice active listening. Keep in mind the goal of the exercise is to pinpoint a high quality candidate professionally and culturally aligned with your organisation.
An early rapport will garner insightful responses. Avoid poor engagement with personalised questions. Make the candidate comfortable. Be aware of body language and tone. Pace your words. Speak clearly. Project energy and enthusiasm, without raising your voice.
Mind Your Manners!
Candidates will view the behaviour of the interviewer as a window into an organisation’s workplace culture. Cutting off the candidate, asking inappropriate personal questions, and using your mobile during the interview reflects poorly on you and your organisation.
Strive to offer genuinely helpful answers to candidate questions around role clarification, upskilling opportunities, workplace flexibility, and remuneration queries. Prepare accordingly, and deliver the information politely.
Practice Unconscious Bias
Interviewers can subconsciously react to an aspect of the candidate’s persona, history or lifestyle, impacting their judgment of candidate suitability. Race, gender, religious affiliation and sexuality are common examples that can play into talent acquisition.
Unconscious bias can negatively affect recruitment decisions, career progression and morale. Furthermore, it can lead to less diverse teams and hinder business productivity. A first-rate Talent Acquisition specialist will exhibit an awareness of unconscious bias in their recruitment practices to ensure an equitable process for all candidates.
Listen to the Experts
Top-tier HR recruitment agencies understand that high-quality recruitment is essential to workplace efficiencies, improved cpmpany performance and high retention rates. As a leading provider of HR Consultancy and HR Recruitment services in Melbourne, deliberatepractice is passionate about supporting organisations and their people.
Our human resources consulting experts are available to help at every stage of your business’ life cycle. Human Resources is our core expertise – we understand and value people. To discuss how we can help transform your organisations’performance, reach out to our team.
