How To Interview: Interviewing Tips For Employers
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Transcript of How To Interview: Interviewing Tips For Employers
Easy Small Business HR 1
How To Interview:
Interviewing Tips For Employers
Special Report From: EasySmallBusinessHR.com
One of the most popular searches on Google is the phrase, “How to
interview” with over 550,000 monthly searches!
Managers and job applicants alike are looking for tips on how to
interview better.
If you are a hiring manager with a job opening, the interview
process is a responsibility that you don’t want to leave to chance.
You need to find the right person for your job without second
guessing your decision.
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Here are three suggestions that will help you to prepare for the
interview:
Interview Tip # 1: Take the time to prepare for your job
applicant interview.
It’s not enough to just review a résumé or job application and ask
questions on the fly. You need to understand the core function of
the job that you are hiring for.
It's critical that you are clear on the type and level of experience as
well as the depth of experience that your candidate will need to
have in order to ask the best interview questions and get the
answers that will help you to make better hiring decisions.
You’re literally flying blind when you don’t take the time to give
some thought to what the skills and experience your job applicant
will need in order to be successful in the job.
Interview Tip # 2: Create a job description in advance of your
interview.
Yes, you are the supervisor, and it stands to reason that you know
everything that there is to know about the job that you are hiring
for. Yet, it's easy to hire someone whom you thought was an
exceptional candidate, only to learn that the job applicant did not
possess a particular skill set, or that they don't have the depth of
experience that you really needed for your position.
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Although it may not seem so, writing a job description is a simple
exercise. You can start by making a laundry list of tasks that you’d
like for your employee to be able to complete in order to
accomplish your business goals. Whittle down your list even
further by focusing on the work that your new employee will
perform on a daily or weekly basis.
Your final job description should include just the core tasks that
your employee will be responsible for. Everything else will fall
under “related duties as required". Use your completed job
description to develop your interview questions.
Interview Tip # 3: Develop your interview questions prior to
meeting with your job candidate.
You can’t make an accurate determination of whether your job
applicant really has the skills and experience needed for your job if
you don’t ask the right questions.
Use your job description as the blueprint for developing your
interview questions as opposed to relying only on those questions
that may occur to you during your interview.
Your interview questions should be laser focused so that you can
learn from your applicant if they have the skills that are needed to
accomplish your goals for the position.
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Interview Tip #4: Ask the right interview questions.
Don’t ask questions that give the job candidate an opportunity to
respond by saying either "yes" or "no".
Your interview questions should guide your job applicant in a way
that will require that he or she provide clear examples that
demonstrate an understanding of a particular task, or how they
have been able to apply their experience in a way that has helped
them to be successful in their current or past positions.
Ask your candidate to give you an example from their current or
past jobs that support their ability to manage employees, complete
projects within deadline, or effectively and courteously interact
with customers for example. This is called behavioral
interviewing.
Interview Tip #5: Check supervisor references.
In our haste to move the hiring process along, it's sometimes easier
to check whatever references are available, or to skip the reference
process altogether. Don’t.
Always, always, check references; preferably supervisor
references. Accepting a reference list that only consists of friends
or colleagues can be a recipe for problems down the line because
you weren't able to identify an employee’s strengths and areas for
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improvement; or whether there were previous performance issues
that you should be aware of.
You need to understand from the supervisor's perspective, your
applicant’s work history as it relates to their skills, their
experience, and their level of productivity.
You'll want to get the supervisor's perspective on an applicant’s
interpersonal skills and other factors that may be important to you
in a candidate.
It’s fine to use references from colleagues but only to supplement
supervisor references. I would go as far as to say that references
from friends should not be considered. After all, what would a true
friend say about their friend who is trying to get a job?
Interview Tip #6: Follow up with all of the applicants that you
have interviewed.
You’re busy; that’s understood. It’s hard to follow up with every
candidate that applies for your job that you did not interview.
Inform all potential applicants before they have applied through
your website that you will only be contacting those candidates that
meet the job experience described in your job posting.
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Be sure to thank all candidates on your website who have taken the
time to consider your job openings.
Follow up with all candidates who you have spoken to by phone,
email and especially in person. To not follow up with the
candidates that took the time to meet with you is a no- no.
Remember that the same candidate that you ignore now may be the
very candidate that you’ll want to hire for your next job opening.
A great reference guide for hiring managers is the book:
Recruiting, Interviewing, Selecting & Orienting New
Employees