Hiring the wrong person can cost a company several thousand Rands, not to mention the potential negative impact on morale and productivity. Effective interviewer skills are therefore critical to organisational success. Here is a list from Tower Group of mistakes interviewers make and how to avoid them.
1. Not Knowing What You’re Looking For
Before you even start looking for candidates, you must know the exact qualifications and competencies you are looking for to fill your vacancy. This will help you define the questions you want to ask, or better yet, the answers you want to hear. Competency-based questions can then be used to determine how well each candidate meets the key requirements, and gives them an opportunity to justify their claims with examples, ensuring you are always talking about skills that contribute to your end goal. Determining which requirements are key to a role will ensure you don’t settle on a candidate with the brightest personality during the interview, but doesn’t have the skills you need.
2. Asking Absurd Questions
This mistake takes many forms. Anything that’s irrelevant, rhetorical or overly complicated can annoy qualified candidates. Predictable questions and brainteasers are also not the best choices in most situations. Make sure you take time to choose the best set of interview questions that will help you accurately evaluate a candidate. Avoid asking ridiculous, obscure, or even existential questions. You might be trying to see how your candidate thinks on their feet, but you might give off the wrong impression.
3. Not Having a Response Evaluation Strategy
Let’s say you do have good questions prepared. A response evaluation strategy is just as important as asking the right questions. Before looking for candidates, you must ask yourself and other team members what constitutes a good response. What are you looking to hear from a candidate? What alternate responses would you still consider good ones? You can record this evaluation system as a sort of rubric against which you can score candidates.
4. Lack of Structure and Preparation
This is the core problem behind poor interviewing, and the reason so many organisations turn to interview training. A structured interview process will help you deliver detailed candidate feedback and make the right decision. Always prepare. One of the main grievances for many jobseekers is when the interviewee hasn’t even looked at their CV. Not dedicating a few minutes to find out what’s on it can turn into a big hiring mistake.
Finding the right person is not easy. It requires time and attention but it is worth it, because the most important asset for an organisation is its people. All of these interview mistakes can directly influence the probability of hiring a happy, successful employee to benefit your company. That is why the Tower Group is here to help because with preparation, mistakes can be avoided.
