Hiring interview tactics every interviewer must know

What role does interviewing play in your hiring process?

There’s something special about meeting people in person, be it face-to-face, or via a video call.

While assessment tests and resumes can shed some light on the person’s technical skills and experience, it is the interviews that tell you whether the person is a culture fit, team player, tactical, and overall a dependable employee.

Interviews are a great way of explaining what responsibilities the new role would entail. Candidates receive some clarity on how their work life would be, and can take a more informed decision while accepting the offer.

Types of hiring interviews:

Broadly, there are three types of hiring interviews:

Phone screening: In this process, usually the recruiter speaks to the candidate to understand their availability for one-on-one/panel interviews, expectations and willingness to continue their application in the company.
One-on-one interviews: Here, candidates meet the hiring panel one interviewer at a time. This can take place on a single day or can span overtime. This usually does not exceed more than four rounds?. Each interviewer evaluates the candidate for different skills, and finally, collaborates to discuss their feedback.
Panel interviews: Here, the hiring panel would interview the candidate together. It is one vs many format, wherein the panel should ideally include a maximum of 4 members. It is particularly useful for amateur interviewers to learn about interviewing candidates. Some companies refrain from using this method to make the candidate feel at ease.

Hiring interview tactics to find your superstar:

From a bird's-eye view, interviews seem to be all about meeting candidates. We know less about the behind-the-scenes work on an interview. In this section, we break down the interview process into before, during and after phases for easier understanding, which will help you make the best choice.

Things to do before the interview:

Do a pre-screening of the candidates using
- Application forms: Filter out candidates who do not fit the criteria at the very top. Ensure that your application form clearly mentions what you are looking for. For instance, if the job requires employees to work night shifts, ask for their willingness in the application form. By doing so, you can easily filter out candidates who cannot work the night shifts. With features like autopilot workflows, it becomes easier to reject the candidates who do not fit the criteria and notify them, without human intervention.
- Online assessment tests: Assess the technical expertise of the candidates by sending them online tests as soon as they apply for the role. Using recruitment software with in-app integration with tools like Codility, HackerRank, HackerEarth, and Classmarker can help you save time and improve the efficiency of your hiring process.
- Phone screening: Once you find the right candidates, call them over the phone and do an initial screening. Understand how serious they are about a job change, ask questions about their resumes if any, answer their questions and find out when they would be available for a personal interview.
Have clarity on your requirements for the job in terms of qualifications, experience, topical knowledge, soft skills and so on. While your job description might already contain all the information, it is helpful to revisit these details prior to the interview.
Prepare the interview questions beforehand. Decide the questions and skills each interviewer should assess in terms of technical expertise, situational awareness, adaptability, behavioural skills, culture fit, and so on. Describe what a good answer would be like so that interviewers can easily identify qualified candidates.
Decide the number of interviewers in the hiring panel. Usually it is best to have 3 members in the hiring panel. It is usually the hiring manager, a team member, followed by an HR leader. Train them on the interview process and ensure that they are on the same page while identifying the right candidate.

What should you do during the interview?

Make them feel comfortable and at ease. It is natural to feel a little nervous while being interviewed. Be empathetic and ask them about their day or other random stuff in the beginning. The idea is to get to the actual interview process when the candidate is at ease. Simply put, focus on providing a great, memorable candidate experience, which will attract more like-minded referral candidates.
Be wary of the time and behavior. What you speak and how you behave is representative of your company. Ensure to start your interview on time and be polite, and turn on your videos, during remote interviews. make them feel comfortable. Ask appropriate questions and nothing that is unacceptable or discriminatory. Give them feedback once the interview is over and brief them of the next steps.
Hear more, and speak less. In any conversation, when you make the other person feel at ease, they tend to speak more openly. You will get more honest, candid answers to your questions and understand the person better.
Along with technical questions, it is important to know how the candidate would behave in different situations. Ask them scenario questions and understand how they would react to such situations. It can be about dealing with a difficult customer, working with the team, dealing with real-time issues at work, and so on. Look for practicality in the solutions offered. Ask them about challenging situations they have faced in their previous job roles and how they dealt with them. This allows you a sneak peak into their analytical and problem-solving capabilities
Sell the job. At every round of the interview, while assessing the candidate it is also important to let them know why they should work for you. Let them know how you are different from other competitors in the market and talk about the perks you offer to your employees. This helps not just in successfully hiring the candidate, but also with employer branding.

What happens after the hiring interview is done?

Collaborate with the hiring panel. Gather all the feedback, compare your answers, and come to a consensus on the candidate.
Do a background check on the candidate. Companies usually do a detailed background check on every candidate they hire. This brings to light any gaps in their career history that were not mentioned during the interview or any such hiccups.
Check with their references. Know about their nature of work, team dynamics, people skills, management style, etc., by talking to their references.
Decide the offer. Once you are convinced, discuss with the hiring manager on remuneration and perks you can offer the candidate. Discuss the numbers with the candidate over a call. Once they accept the offer verbally, go ahead and craft an offer letter to the candidate and get started with the onboarding process.