Vanessa Gibb, people lead at Pnet.
It is during the interview where real insight into their ambitions, strengths and weaknesses, and potential alignment with the role and organisational culture will emerge. By talking to candidates, you start to learn who they really are, how they might deal with a difficult customer, what their career goals are and how they will fit into your company culture.
This is a crucial part of the process because hiring the wrong person could derail your business’s goals, undermine team morale, and stall productivity. It could also lead to a waste of time and money when you have to restart the recruitment process because the person you chose did not work out.
Many line managers and SMB owners are as intimidated by the interviewing process as the person sitting opposite them is. If you’re not an experienced interviewer, the good news is that it is a skill that can be learned and practiced. The right interview technique and questions can transform the hiring conversation and bring a candidate’s potential to life.
Let’s start with some tips for conducting successful interviews:
- Know what you’re looking for in a candidate: Start interviews with a clear idea about the skills, qualifications, experience and personal attributes you’re looking for. Distinguish between ‘must-haves’ and ‘nice-to-haves’ to stay focused on what matters most.
- Prepare for the interview: Familiarise yourself with each candidate’s CV and cover letter, so that you can ask insightful questions about their career and qualifications.
- Take structured notes: Keeping notes from each interview in a consistent format helps you to base decisions on evidence rather than impressions.
- Allow time for reflection: Don’t rush into judgement about a candidate’s suitability for the role. Take time afterwards to reflect on what they said and refer back to your notes to compare candidates objectively.
- Remember that the interview is a key moment in the candidate journey: The interview process is a chance to showcase your company's culture and values. Positive interview experiences will enhance your employer brand with successful and unsuccessful candidates alike.
- Create a welcoming environment: Many candidates will be nervous during an interview. Helping them to feel comfortable will allow them to shine and encourage open communication.
- Follow a structured plan for each interview: A standardised set of questions will help reduce bias in the interview, make it easier to compare candidates to the job requirements and ensure that you cover all the important bases in the discussion.
- Check your biases: Be mindful of unconscious bias. Focus on the candidate’s skills, qualifications, and experience rather than personal characteristics that are unrelated to the job.
Questions that help you get to know the candidate
The point of the interview is to get insights you can’t get from reading their CVs. Try to weave in questions that offer the candidate the opportunity to share stories, reflect on their experiences, and elaborate on their ways of working and thinking. Their answers to open-ended questions can be revealing:
- Tell me about a time you had to learn something quickly to solve a problem.
- What’s been your biggest professional challenge, and how did you overcome it?
- What motivates you to come to work every day?
- How do you like to receive feedback?
Many interviewers find it helpful to follow a structured framework like STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) or CARL (Context, Action, Result, Learning). STAR questions focus on past behavior as an indicator of future performance.
One example is: “Describe a situation where you had to deal with a difficult colleague or customer. What steps did you take, and what was the result?”
CARL questions are similar, but build in a reflective element, asking what the candidate learned from the experience. For example: “Tell me about a time you had to learn a new skill quickly. What was the context, what did you do, what happened, and what did you learn from the process?”
The interview is a moment that matters in the recruitment process
Companies who master the skill of running a successful interview process will make more successful placements and build stronger relationships with candidates. CVs may get candidates into the room, but interviews reveal the qualities that truly matter. Asking the right questions is the key to making lasting placements that grow with your business.
