16 Jan 2015  •  Practice Management, HR & Employment Law  •  4min read By  • Peninsula Business Services

How to get the most out of an interview

Are you looking to recruit some newbies to the team, but want to ensure you cover every base in your interviews? Peninsula Business Services are on hand to help you do just that by sharing their top interviewing techniques.

The key to any successful business is the people behind the service, that’s why attracting and selecting the best talent available is crucial – making a poor recruitment decision can cost your business time, money and even customers! So, how can you minimise the risk of recruiting the wrong person?

A good interview process is the foundation for this. Far too many managers rely on gut instinct or a short, informal chat to make this all important decision. Ultimately, by investing the time at the beginning, you can save yourself a lot of pain later on!

So, how can you get the most out of each interview?

Have a clear vision..

Be sure you understand the role you’re looking to fulfill and be clear on exactly what it is you’re looking for. It’s important not to just focus solely on experience or the technical skills that are required for the role, but to think about other attributes or behaviours that are good to have within the role and your business too.

For example, in a sales role an individual’s motivation and emotional resilience can be as important as experience in selling a particular product or service. Product knowledge is easy to train whereas motivation is something that comes from within.

Build an ‘Interview Plan’

Once you’ve identified your vision of what it is you need from the role, it’s worth devising an ‘Interview Plan’. Your plan should be based around the key skills and behaviours you’re hiring against and helps to develop a consistent process for each candidate.

The Interview Plan should be used as a guide and not a script, after all, the key to interviewing is to probe and question further if the candidate’s answers are vague or lack detail.

We recommend choosing a colleague to attend the interview with you so that they can make notes for you. This enables you to capture all of the examples and evidence the candidate provides, plus, if you have multiple applicants for a role, these notes will enable you to review all of the candidates fairly before making your decision.

Create a positive candidate experience

Never forget that the ‘candidate experience’ is critical to the recruitment process. Even if the person is not right for your business, remember that you are representing your company and brand and you want the candidate to leave with a positive view of your company. After all, you don’t want them to tell others who may be future potential candidates.

Don’t compromise on quality

Finally, don’t compromise on quality. Your people are your biggest asset. If you do not believe you have interviewed the correct person, do not offer them the job! Investing a little more time in finding the right person wastes a lot less time than hiring the wrong one.

Should you have any doubts at all about your situation and its next steps, we always recommend that you seek the advice and support of legal and employment law specialists.

If you want some more tips on recruiting the right people or other aspects of employment law, why not head on over to our Resource Library ?

 

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