5 Fail-Safe Tips To Conduct An Effective Interview

Profit aside, finding the best talents will always appear as the number one priority of employers. Why? Simply because they are the profit generators, the ones who diligently keep the coal burning, pushing your luxurious train 50 kilometres per hour while it ploughs through thick snow and any obstacles. That said, you want to hire talents who match the role and can perform as they have affirmed. Your business needs solutions, not pollutions. Hence, the gatekeeping activity, aka the interview, must be conducted precisely.

In this day and age, talents can effortlessly obtain any information about the company on the web, and that includes your hiring process. Through reliable platforms like Google Review, JobStreet and Glassdoor, candidates who do their research will find comments left by ex-employees or talents who have attended interviews at your company. Be it good or bad, more importantly, is how ready are you as an interviewer. To conduct an effective interview, here is your checklist:

1. Questions planning and preparation
2. Building rapport with your candidates
3. Throw in actual problems and search for real solutions
4. Assess the candidate's potential and consider "Cultural Fit"
5. Sell the job and the company

1. Questions planning and preparation

Afore meeting with your candidate, ensure you have taken time to learn about the opening. Find out the critical tasks, and what are the skills and experience the candidate must possess to perform the job well. Learn about the qualities of the company's top performers and use them as benchmarks. Prepare questions that will allow candidates to share their capabilities, thought processes also their accomplishments. When you have asked the right questions, almost immediately, you can determine if the candidate is telling the truth on his or her resume or not. 

2. Building rapport with your candidates

Undeniably the word "interview" automatically triggers the panic button in one's head, even seasoned interviewers, candidates and celebrities are no exception. Candidates feeling daunted in an interview usually is due to not knowing how the session would turn out. They could have multiple practices on the standard questions asked in an interview, learned the inside out about the company's business and the job opening, and yet; they still could fail in an interview because of reasons like "he is too outspoken for the role". 

To help calm the nerves of candidates, here are a few pointers interviewers can work on:

1. Give them time to prepare.
2. Let candidates know in advance the main questions you both will be discussing.
3. Give them the heads up on how many interviewers will be participating.
4. Share with candidates the company's dress code. 
5. Smile. (A stern face will likely remind candidates of their discipline teacher, and that wouldn't be too pleasant.) 

When candidates realised that you are kind to them, they will feel relaxed and be more open to share.

3. Throw in actual problems and search for real solutions

Remember, you are interviewing to find out the suitability of the candidate for the opening. Asking hypothetical questions may help you understand how the candidate behaves towards resolving the issue, but why waste the opportunity when you can immediately find out on the spot whether the candidate can solve the real problem or not? 

You want to throw in real scenarios to test the candidate. With proper planning, you can opt to handout a case study (with private data hidden) to the candidate to prepare his or her answers a day or two before the interview. This activity could also help you to identify if the candidate is serious about the application.

4. Evaluate the candidate's potential and weigh "Cultural Fit"

Wouldn't it be nice if we have a crystal ball that tells the future, especially if the candidate would fit the role? The job of an interviewer would be way more straightforward and swifter. No doubt that artificial intelligence will take on such tasks in the future, but that is a story for another day. 

With sufficient time spent, experience and information obtained from the candidate, we can safely say one can quickly gauge the potential staying power of the candidate as well as whether they will fit in the culture. To start with, ensure you have provided sufficient time for each session to collect and analyse information from the candidate; identify signs that he or she has the interest to learn and grow within the company. 

Subsequently, asking questions that would indicate the candidate's capability to work in a team or preferred to operate alone, and their intention to join for short or long term. With time, the candidate can adapt to change, but ultimately, is that the change that they want in their career journey? That is something for you to find out.

5. Sell the job and the company

Selling the job too soon may come off as ignorant at times. Candidates may think or feel that you are too desperate to fill the vacancy, sometimes, too cocky. Take your time to learn about the candidate, write down details such as their needs, wants, as well as their "hot buttons". Then, incorporate these points while you sell the opportunity to them. This way, you’ll have a higher chance to win the candidate's heart.

To summarise, whether you are carrying out a face-to-face or virtual interview, be a responsible interviewer. Always plan ahead of the interview, provide positive interview experience for your candidates, help them to excel even before joining. Give them real tests, and get reliable solutions; learn if they are a good fit for the company, and lastly, win their heart to be part of the family! 

To learn more about Adecco Malaysia's services, drop us an email at marketing.my@adecco.my or ring us up at +603- 2781 0000. We care and are ready to help you!