3 Types of Interviews You Can Use to Source Your Candidates Better
The interview portion of the hiring process is a critical step when hiring your next employee. It allows you to acquire crucial information about the applicant and ask questions that will verify the individual’s qualifications, attitude, plans, and ambitions. This helps you assess whether their ideologies and skills are aligned with the job position and your company’s values.
Entities have been conducting their recruitment process differently. Oftentimes, recruitment processes come with a series of exams and interviews. To help you with your recruitment process, we will tackle several types of interviews that can help you source and know your candidates better.
Different Ways to Conduct an Interview
Conducting an interview is substantial as this is a big opportunity to know more about the candidate and gather data that you may use for background checking.
Every entity’s recruitment process over time recognizes new ways to conduct an interview. With modern technology, such as smartphones and personal computers, the hiring process has also adopted digital recruitment. That said, the older and newer procedures combined create several ways, such as the following, that can help employers with their interviews:
- In-person interview. This method is done face-to-face, where candidates are invited to the office where the interview will take place.
- Online interview. Unlike the first method, an online interview does not require applicants to go to the office personally. Typically this interview can be done through video conferencing applications such as Gmeet, Zoom, Skype, and so on.
- Phone interview. A phone interview is a short getting-to-know-the-talent acquisition officer. This is usually the initial interview made to screen applicants that best fit the job role.
These methods can give recruiters and candidates a more flexible hiring process that will cater to both. It also gives talent acquisitions a wider range of opportunities to find the best applicant for the job.
Most Common Interview Methods
Employers conduct interviews to learn more about the candidate and specify their way to the most qualified individual that is ideal for the position. During the interview, the interviewers will ask specific questions to help them shortlist candidates.
Different types of interviews, such as the following, can help employers hire the best candidate for the job:
#1 One-on-One Interview
One-on-one interviews are among the most common types of interview methods used in the recruitment industry. It aims to collect data such as beliefs, opinions, experiences, family background, and so on. When conducting one-on-one interviews, it is ideal to assign a company representative, ideally a manager or a senior employee who belongs to the same department, to interview the applicant.
This can bring several benefits that can help the interviewer collect details about the applicant:
- It can bring in-depth conversation between the applicant and the hiring manager that can answer questions about:
- Soft skills
- Hard skills
- Rapport building
- Work ethics
- Experience
- Less outspoken applicants are allowed to present and talk about themselves more.
- It brings more personal connections that can build trust and encourage sharing more information about the candidate and the company.
Aside from getting to know the candidate’s skills and personality, information such as their short and long-term goals is equally important to know what they want to achieve with their career. Another factor of the one-on-one interview is that candidates could freely ask about the wage and salary packages.
How to Conduct a One-on-One Interview?
Recruiters must remember that active listening, observing, and evaluating are significant to get to know prospective candidates more and clarify their questions about the organization. Here are a few tips that you can take note of before interviewing a candidate:
- Make sure to get your questions ready, including the follow-ups.
- Ensure to give time for each question and the applicant’s answers.
- Keep your phrasing concise to make your questions more understandable.
- Make the candidate on track with the questions.
Always remember that aside from the candidate, you must also be ready with their interview to gain important information without wasting a lot of time. Keeping track will give you more time to evaluate and learn about the applicant.
#2 Group Interview
A group interview is when a recruiter talks to a group of candidates to learn something about them. Generally, companies use this kind of interview to save time and screen candidates simultaneously.
This interview style is often used in the hospitality, food service, retail industries, and other group-dependent jobs that require teamwork and regular group collaboration. Below are some of the advantages of group interviews:
- Helping employers to have an initial idea of how the applicant works with others
- Allowing the interviewer to observe the applicant’s people and communication skills
- Comparing applicants side by side as a recruiter will be able to interact and hear their answers in the same session
A group interview works best for positions that require people skills. Usually, these jobs are those who face consumers or work with a large department with plenty of reporting and presentation.
How to Conduct a Group Interview?
Given that group interviews involve simultaneous interaction between you and the candidates, it is ideal for making preparations to help keep you on track. During this hiring process, ideas and opinions are free, which tends to derail you from your structure.
Here are a few things you can do to ensure that your candidates are comfortable and well-prepared for the group interview:
- Before the group interview, employers must inform the candidates that other applicants will join them.
- Ensure structure such as time for the introduction, Q&A, group activity, and so on.
- Take notes about what you observe to avoid any detail mix-ups.
- Use a scorecard to compare each candidate better.
A group interview can be more challenging than a one-on-one discussion as it requires you to evaluate and observe applicants at the same time. However, being mentally and resourcefully ready can help save time and streamline recruitment processes.
#3 Panel Interview
A panel interview consists of one applicant and several interviewers from different departments of the organization, such as department heads and human resource members.
Panel interviews allow the panel to form a consensus or a collaboration of ideas or questions that enable them to provide full coverage of the candidate’s skills. Doing so enables you and the panel to acquire a high volume of information that can help with decision-making later.
Panel interviews also provide several benefits, such as the following:
- Acquire multiple perspectives, such as outlooks, work ethics, and hobbies, since there are officers from different departments that would be able to ask questions
- Interviewers will be able to hear the participant’s answers at the same time, giving them the opportunity to view it based on their job role and will be able to compare them to other heads
- It will lessen the hiring time as interviewers will be there at the same time
A panel interview is one great way to avoid unconscious bias. Having panelists from various departments can have different viewpoints, work experience, and personal backgrounds.
These factors can reduce the chances of biased hiring as employers will determine the applicant based on their work ethics and experience instead of simple reasons such as coming from the same city, obtaining the same likes and dislikes, ideology, beliefs, and so on.
How to Conduct a Panel Interview
Considering that there are several interviewers involved in a panel interview. It is essential to make preparations beforehand to ensure the success of the discussion.
There are things you need to remember to guarantee a more organized discussion. Below are some tips you may use when conducting a panel interview:
- Make sure to prepare ahead of time. Write down your questions and ensure that each will give you the information you want to know.
- There must be a role for each panel member, such as the one who will take the lead, introduce panel members, discuss company details, etc.
- Communicate with panel members as to what they observe about the applicant.
Choose the Best Interview Method to Source Your Applicants Better
Effective Interviews are an essential part of the head-hunting procedure regardless of your hiring processes. However, it all comes down to one goal, it enables the employer to know the skills and qualities of the applicant that makes them a good fit for the role.
The recruitment process devotes plenty of time when it comes to interviewing applicants to ensure that they get the best out of all the candidates. If you find interviewing exhausting, you can seek help from recruitment firms to help you with knowing your candidates better.
Improve Your Interview Process to Source the Best Candidates
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