It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it is extremely important what your candidates think about your hiring process. 38% of candidates, who have a bad experience in a company’s hiring process, will not take the job and then are less likely to use the company’s services in the future. When you invite someone to take part in an interview process, you are giving them an insight to how your business works and how your employees are treated. You should present yourself in the same professional manner you expect the candidate to show. There are some tips below to improve your interview process, for both you and the candidates; you should have the typical before, during and after structure, this will help your employees and the candidate know exactly what is going on.
Pre-Interview
- It’s important to let the candidate know what is happening. Let them know what the job entails in a bit more depth before they travel to you and give them a small bit of preparation, whether this be over email or the phone, it will help relax them.
- Prep the interview team. - If you have more than one person involved in the interview process, make sure you go through questions you want answered and what you are looking for exactly. This can mean questions will not be asked twice and you can get involved in a good conversation that has a purpose.
- Do an overview of the candidate. Know their name, their previous job role and understand why they are talking to you. Know this and they will feel much more important and will prevent them from consistently repeating themselves.
- Make sure you don’t over to it, it’s important to plan the stages so it’s not being dragged out. Candidates do not favor 6-stage interviews, they are more likely to pull out and not complete the process.
During the Interview
- Represent your business. You need to act and look how you expect the candidate too; otherwise, they can feel extremely uncomfortable. You are an ambassador for the company and they will judge the company from their experience with you.
- Take notes during the interview. This will make it easier to feedback to your team afterwards; you won’t have to guess if you have made notes. This way your colleagues can compare and see if the candidate is right for the job.
- Engage the candidate. You are meant to be the one making the conversation, if there is awkward silence it is down to you. You fill in the gaps and find questions to ask. Otherwise the candidate may think you are under-prepared. Always have something to ask and keep away from the personal questions.
After the Interview
- Discuss the nature of the interview after with your team. You need a candidate that will fit into the office culture and work well with your team. Make this clear and everything else will flow well during the interview as well.
- Do not take too long to make contact with the candidate after the interview. You need to keep them in the loop or they will go looking elsewhere. Send a follow-up email, thanking them for attending the interview and letting them know when they will be contacted with an answer. This gives the candidate reassurance and to consider your company if any other offers arise.
A huge part of any interview is to make the candidate the centre of everything. Plan around them and let them know about everything that is happening. This will give them a good interview experience and are less likely to talk badly about the business. If the experience is bad, it is more than likely they will post about their experience on social media and talk about it to friends and family. – This is not what you want. The power of voice is so much stronger than you’d think. Keep everything simple, to the point and positive and you will see better results.