Planning an Interview

Image of a man and woman engaging in an Interview

As with anything, the key to conducting a successful interview starts with the planning. In Part Four of this article series we will take you through four key points to preparing you for conducting an effective interview.

What will we be covering?

•   Laying out a clear action plan for the whole interview process
•   Establishing what your objectives for the interview are
•   Setting up a structure for the interviews
•   Preparing Interview questions

Lay out a clear action plan for the whole interview process

•   Create a timeframe for each decision such as, an application closing date, when your likely to get back in touch with each candidate
•   Are you planning on having more than one interview with each candidate?
•   Pre-prepare offer and rejection letters. You can add constructive feedback later on

Establish what your objectives for the interview are

When establishing the objectives of the interview you need to be interested in more than just the knowledge and skills of your potential employee, you also need to look into their character and professionalism. Ask yourself these questions:

•   Does the candidate have the knowledge and skills needed?
•   Do they show the necessary level of professionalism?
•   Are they a good fit for the position, within the team and company?
•   Are they likely to become a good long term employee?

Set up a structure for the interviews

Having a clear structure to the interview will help both you and the candidate to keep focused and if you use it consistently you will be able to have a clear basis to compare each candidate on. You may want to follow a structure like this:

•   Introduce the company
•   Talk to the candidate and find out more about their background
•   Talk about the vacancy, what is involved and why would your company be the right choice for the candidate
•   This is just as much about selling the company as it is the candidate selling themselves •   Feedback and questions
•   Talk about the next steps moving forward

Prepare Interview Questions

If you don’t know where to start when preparing your interview questions, refer back to the job specification that we worked on in Part Two of this article series and shape your questions around the key points in the specification. For example, you could ask the candidate how they would overcome a challenge that involved one of their responsibilities.

Part 3 - Assessing CVs Part 5 - Conducting an Interview