Interviewing 101: How to get the right candidates through the door

If you are a company that is looking at plans for growth within your staff, then this blog is for you.

We will offer the best practice for having a successful interview and getting candidates coming back to you desperately wanting the job.

The age-old saying “failure to prepare” is key when interviewing, this is not just for the candidate to heed but also for you the hiring team!

You will need to start with how you going to applicants coming to you, whether you are going to post jobs on job boards or use a recruitment agency to search for candidates anonymously so you are only getting the best in class.

Once you have received a healthy number of candidates to consider for the open position you will need to plan out your interview process, will you prefer the one-and-done approach with a single interview or will you go for a more thorough plan of multiple interviews and even set a task for the candidate to complete.

If you are to choose the single interview method, ensure that you have enough questions to find out the correct information you will need for an ideal candidate. Also, make sure you have enough questions to warrant the time taken to speak with the candidate, after all, you will be taking away time that could be spent on the company.

The interview is a chance to have a conversation with the individual and better understand their character to see if they will be able to mould in well with the current team you have in place. Interviews are of course a two-way street so do be prepared to account for questions from the opposite side. There must be a good flow throughout the process as again you are needing to make sure that each minute spent with the candidate

If you are to choose the multiple-staged route ensure that each stage is different from the last. What we mean by this is that you cannot simply bring a candidate in for 3 interviews that are all Q&A based with the same person each time.

A good way to separate each interview stage could be the first stage to be an informal chat to get an idea of the person’s character and whether their personality is in keeping with the rest of the teams. From there you can move to a second stage and incorporate a task to show their capabilities that they would be able to meet the demands of the role daily, having a task is also a good way to see the candidates’ commitment to the role. You will be able to see the level of their work and the effort they were willing to put into securing this role.

Moving to the final stage you can have them meet the key decision maker, the company director or their potential team leader, this way you can get an idea of how they respond to authority and that they can match the professional nature of more senior members in your company.

To ensure from the start that you are getting the right level of candidates attending your interviews, it is best to have a dedicated person for resourcing and screening ideal candidates so that your time is not wasted looking through applicants that are time wasters.

The best possible measure for this is to outsource to a recruitment agency, like Integro. A recruitment agency has the tools and insight into which candidates will be suitable for you and will take the time to talk with them, meaning you will have more time spent elsewhere in your operations.

For help with your recruitment process, contact our expert team of recruiters to help you today!

Call: 0161 989 5670

Email: hello@integro.partners