The Ultimate Guide For Conducting Job Interviews
Interviews are integral to the recruitment process. As an HR professional, knowing how to conduct great job interviews gives you a chance to learn more about a candidate and determine if they’re a right fit for the company.
Whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned job interviewer, you need to prepare ahead of time, review the candidate’s credentials beforehand, and study the requirements of the role in order to conduct a successful job interview in Singapore.
For today’s article, we’ll take a closer look at different interview processes, as well as give you tips on how to conduct a successful job interview.
Let’s start with the different job interview formats.
1. Structured Interviews
One of the most common interview formats, structured interviews require you to prepare a fixed set of questions to ask candidates.
Although it can be difficult not to deviate from the prepared questions, it’s better to stay on script and avoid custom questions to provide an equal opportunity to all candidates.
Obviously, the downside to this approach is that you won’t likely learn what makes each candidate unique as you won’t get to ask follow-up questions.
2. Unstructured Interviews
Unstructured interviews are a more conversational approach to job interviews. Here, you’ll get to ask candidates all sorts of questions that will allow you to get to know them more professionally and personally.
There’s no need to prepare a set of questions. The only preparation you need to do before the interview is going over each candidate’s resume.
The disadvantage of this friendlier approach to job interviews is that you might get led away from the core criteria of the role.
3. Hybrid Interviews
When you combine structured and unstructured interviews, you have hybrid interviews.
These interviews are a little more complicated to do as you need to master the skill of knowing when to stay on course and when to deviate. Through this interview format, you’ll be able to know each candidate on a personal level while still getting to ask the important questions.
4. Self-managed and effective teams
It goes without saying that teamwork is the key to achieving goals and driving success, which couldn’t be any more true in a corporate setting.
Teams are essential because of the people who think differently but work towards the same goal. When people in a team are thinking differently, more ideas are created, which are then processed and combined to generate the ultimate best idea.
One of HR’s key responsibilities is to nurture and encourage high-performing teams, usually by providing them with tools that would make their tasks easier or by rewarding team excellence.
How to conduct a job interview
One of the most important parts of the interview process happens before the interview. It’s important to prepare ahead of time by reviewing your candidates profiles and assessing the role you’re hiring for.
Here are the steps in conducting a successful job interview in Singapore:
1. Prepare for the interview
Before the interview, evaluate the open positions you’re hiring for and review each candidate’s resume and cover letter.
Assess what the roles will do for the company and then cross-check them with the educational background, professional experience, and skills of the candidates. Take down some notes and organise them into a list and then jot down some relevant questions.
2. Review the STAR method
The STAR method is a popular interview technique used by HR professionals to know promising candidates on a deeper level.
The STAR acronym stands for Situation, Task, Action, Results. When asking behavioural questions, interviewers expect candidates to answer the question by describing the situation, its requirements, the action taken, and the results.
For example, if you ask a workplace-related question, the candidate’s answer should include how they used their skills in the workplace and how they overcame a professional challenge.
3. Describe the company and position
Before anything else, introduce yourself and discuss the position in-depth with the candidates. Try to give a brief background of the role and the organisation and how the position fits the company’s long-term goals and objectives.
4. Explain the interview process
One of the things that most companies struggle with is making relevant information accessible to every member of the organisation.
The reason why information dissemination and sharing is important is that it creates a culture where people feel they’re trusted. Employees appreciate it when they’re in the loop of what’s happening in and out of the company.
Plus, if employees understand what’s happening, they may be able to contribute valuable ideas. You never know where the best idea can come from.
5. Learn about the candidate’s goals
Before asking role-specific questions, it’s better to learn about the candidate’s career goals. You can ask general questions about their professional experience and what made them decide to apply for the position.
As the interviewer, asking about the candidate’s career allows you to understand where their expectations lie when it comes to career development and helps you assess their knowledge of the company and the role itself.
6. Ask role-specific questions
Once you’ve asked general career questions, transition to asking role-specific questions. In most cases, you might need to prepare a set of questions to do this.
Asking this type of questions allows interviewers to determine if the candidate has the relevant skills and experience to take on the role, or at least has the potential to grow into the role.
For example, if you’re interviewing for an accountant position, ask if they have experience in compiling and analysing financial data, performing audits, and computing taxes, among others.
7. Ask follow-up questions
Unless you’re doing a structured interview, don’t forget to ask follow-up questions. There’s no better way to gather more information about the candidate than by making them expound on their initial answers.
By doing so, you can gain greater insight into their personality, values, thought process, and professional experience that general questions wouldn’t be able to give.
8. Take down notes
Taking down notes during the interview will help you make more confident and informed decisions later on. If you’re talking to multiple candidates for a role, there’s no other way to remember each one of them than by writing notes.
Some of the details that might be helpful while evaluating the candidates are your first impressions, their body language, and the matter in which they answered your questions.
Conclusion
Conducting job interviews is never a walk in the park. That’s why you have to educate yourself on the different interview processes and formats and decide which ones you think will help you find the perfect candidate.
Because when you know how to conduct job interviews, you can find out more than what resumes and cover letters can tell you.
