Interview Preparation Makes A Difference
Interviewing candidates is essential to building an effective team and obtaining the talent you need for your organization. But many businesses fail to implement a good interview strategy and either hire the wrong candidates or lose the opportunity to recruit the right ones.
Preparation makes all the difference when conducting job interviews. Understanding the needs of your business and developing an interview strategy allows you to make the process more efficient and increases the likelihood of finding the best employees.
What Your Business Needs
Many businesses place their focus on the qualifications of candidates. They look at their experience and credentials in their effort to determine the best fit for a given position.
But it’s also important to determine the needs that a new employee will meet once they’re hired. You must have a system in place to measure the extent to which an individual meets those needs and identify the qualities that are ideal for your company.
Once you establish these needs, you can begin to develop your interview strategy more effectively.
Developing Your Interview Strategy
Your interview will help you identify the skills, expertise, and personality that contribute to the overall success of your business. You need to collaborate with key members of your team to gather the information you need to develop your interview strategy.
An interview strategy’s objective should be to find the absolute best fit for your team. Many businesses make the mistake of ranking their candidates after an interview and choosing from that pool.
Rather than select the best candidate from the individuals you interviewed, stay committed to finding the best candidate—even if that means extending the interview process.
Reviewing Resumés
The resumés you receive provide valuable information related to the experience and skill sets of candidates. Your interview preparation must include the careful review of these resumés in order to develop the questions that will be asked.
The more you know and understand about your candidates, the greater the results you’ll achieve from your interview process. Consider the accomplishments, project types, and promotions that relate to a candidate.
What do their resumés indicate about their work ethic, interpersonal skills, and level of motivation? These are just some of the considerations to make when preparing for your interviews.
Ask the Right Questions
Knowledge about your candidates leads to the questions that will provide the most insight for you.
Interviews should be conversational and open. They should allow candidates to provide information that touches on a wide range of their personal and professional aspects.
Your ability to listen is also key to this process. Allow candidates to talk freely without interruption. Give them the space to consider their answers and offer follow-up questions to delve deeper into a topic.
Identifying the needs of your business helps define the interview strategy you’ll use. Having an understanding of your candidates by taking the time to review their resumés and develop thoughtful questions gives you an advantage in finding the best individuals to support and grow your business.
Back
