How to organize and manage an effective job interview

Best practices and tips for successful recruitment

Attracting candidates in line with the open position with an efficient job description is only the first step: the job interview remains the crucial phase of the recruitment process. It is in fact at this stage that  the recruiter meets the candidate for the first time and has the opportunity to evaluate him more carefully.

Yet it happens not infrequently that its preparation is underestimated. To conduct a truly effective interview , recruiters should take into consideration a number of elements: defining a calendar to share with the HR team and identifying the best questions to ask are just a few examples.

How to organize a job interview

It will seem obvious to say, but one of the most important things a recruiter can do before the interview is to carefully study the curriculum: in this way he will not only identify in advance which aspects to deepen during the interview, but will make it clear to the candidate who has dedicated it. weather.

Very useful in this preparation phase is to draw up a list of usual questions to test the soft and hard skills of the candidates. Furthermore, noting the answers can be used to quickly and easily compare the responses obtained from all the interviewees.

Arranging the appointment with the HR team is important to establish at the outset which and how many HR team members will take part in the interview; from there you can plan a calendar to share with the group.

Telephone interviews between recruiter and candidate do not always take place in optimal conditions: sending a summary email to provide the candidate with all the information relating to the interview (information on how to reach the office, name and contact details of the interviewer) is not just an indication of courtesy, but at times it can be indispensable, especially in the case of group interviews or assessments.

Interruptions during a job interview can be nerve-wracking and compromise the confidence that the interviewer has managed to obtain to put his interlocutor at ease. Choosing an appropriate place will therefore be essential .

How to manage the job interview

Once you are done preparing for the job interview, it’s time to take action. There are several precautions that a recruiter can take in order to successfully manage a job interview.

Let’s see them together:

1. Introduce yourself: to better welcome the candidate and calm him down, you can start by telling something about yourself and provide some general information about the company.
2. Describe the job position: the text relating to the job offer must already be clear and complete, but during the interview it is necessary to go more specifically and tell something, for example, about the working methods and the goals achieved in the interview. reference scope.
3. Review the experiences and skills reported on the CV: if the curriculum contains specific job positions and skills suitable for the open position, take the opportunity to ask for further details. This step also serves to test the candidate’s expression and communication skills.
4. Find out about the candidate’s career goals: To understand what the interviewee’s career goals are, you can ask general questions about his or her professional interests, in order to determine if they could be in line with what the open position offers.
5. Ask questions about the role: the interview is the most precious time to explore the reasons that led to the application. The next step will be to investigate the reasons that led the candidate to choose your company and not another.
6. Find out what the interviewee knows about the company: by connecting to the previous point, learning how well informed the candidate is about the company is an effective way to test his degree of interest in the company itself. The more you are able to argue and ask questions that demonstrate some knowledge, the more it will be evident how sincere the desire to work in your reality is.
7. Taking notes: writing down the most important information, such as answers to specific questions or behaviors that may have revealed something more about the candidate, is useful to easily relive each single interview without having to rely on memory, at the risk of getting confused. However, it is advisable not to lose too much eye contact with the interlocutor and to constantly let him know that you are listening to him.
8. Clearly explain the recruiting process, i.e. what are the phases following the first interview and between how much, indicatively, your feedback could receive (even in the event of a negative result).
9. Allow space for questions: no matter how hard you try to clarify each point, something can always escape: the candidate should have the opportunity to ask questions to eliminate concerns about the company, the possible team or the position itself. At the same time it serves to assess whether the interest is still present at the end of the interview.

Find out how to make the organization of your interviews more efficient

Organizing interviews precisely and making sure you conduct them as effectively as possible are tasks that require time and attention. There are some tools that can help recruiters improve their work experience.

An ATS software such as Performa Recruit can make some phases of the selection process more agile and faster. In particular, in the case of job interviews, it allows you to:

1. Schedule interviews using Performa Recruit’s internal calendar, which allows you to find the same information on personal calendars, through immediate synchronization. In this way, information can be shared in real time with all members of the HR team, thus optimizing the scheduling of interviews.
2. Send e-mails to candidates with instructions in case of invitations to assessment centers or group interviews.
3. Send e-mails to candidates to inform them of the selection process. Candidates must always provide feedback, even in the event of a negative result, for fairness and in order not to damage the corporate image. Performa Recruit has a set of automatic email management tools to inform candidates about the status of the recruitment process.
4. Monitor the status of the candidate to check where the applications are and share information with other recruiters, so that they are always up to date on the selection process.
5. Use the “interview notes” , a space to write down notes taken during the job interview, to share with all members of the hiring team, so they can see at a glance the progress of the interviews.

Our suggestion is to rely on the tools available in the Performa Recruit suite to automate some of the processes related to interview planning and management . By optimizing your time and improving your organization, you can devote more time and attention to candidates.