MightyRecruiterIf you think the interview is over as soon as the candidate walks out the door, guess again. Much of what happens afterwards contributes to your hiring decisions. You can’t use a person’s resume and job application to know whether or not they’d make a good employee. You need to interview them and follow the right post interview steps to make the best decision. To avoid making hiring mistakes that could result in you bringing the wrong person onboard, here are some steps you can take to improve your post-interview review.
Assemble a Team
It is much easier to evaluate potential employees as a group than it is alone. When you are the sole interviewer, it is up to you to watch for cues, body language and listen for information that may convince you that you’ve found the right individual for the job. After sitting through several interviews, it can be challenging for you to keep up with which candidates made the best impression. When you interview as a team, you can assign certain areas for your team members to pay attention to so you all can compare notes afterwards during the post-interview review. During the review, each interviewer should share any impressions they received about each candidate. Any notes that were taken should be shared and each interviewer should defend why or why not they would consider hiring each individual that is interviewed. This helps to alleviate missed information, since another interviewer is more likely to pick up where one left off. By collaborating and sharing information, the hiring decision can be made collectively, using more information than would have been obtained with just one interviewer. If your interview team is based on seniority and consists of several lower level employees, always give the lower level employees the floor first to prevent them from withholding their opinions and impressions.
Implement a Scoring System
Encourage all interviewers to use a scoring system when they are assessing potential candidates. This makes it much easier for you and everyone else to rank interviewees on their appearance, information gathered and the impression they left. Any information obtained by your interview team this way will also be easier to process, share and understand.
Give Each Interview the Same Courtesy
After interviewing people all day, it is not uncommon for one to forget key characteristics, names or other vital information that can affect their hiring decisions. To prevent candidates from being lumped together and to keep your memory clear, always take notes about each interview. Keep track of characteristics that stand out to help you to recall them later. Write down why you liked them or not and what about them captured your interest. Any information you take note of during the interview can significantly help you during the post-interview review process.
Track Candidates That Make a Good Impression
It is easy to keep track of candidates who have impressive resumes for you to look at. However, it is not always so easy for you to keep track of the people you’ve interviewed face to face. Any candidates that you feel would make a good fit for the position they are interviewing for should be shortlisted. Write their name down on a piece of paper and set it to the side. That piece of paper should contain a list of all of the candidates you want to come back for a second interview.
Don’t Rush the Decision Process
Depending on your organization’s current hiring needs, you may experience a sense of urgency from time to time. Rather than to allow that urgency to affect your post-interview process, make a checklist of steps that should be taken after each interview to ensure only the best candidates persevere. Although it may seem as if most of the work that goes into choosing the right employees for your company is done during the actual interview, the bulk of the work actually occurs during the post-interview review process. Once you put together a team and implement the right steps to take during the review process, you’ll find that it is much easier for your organization to make better hiring decisions. The key to securing the right employees for your organization is to improve your hiring process. Pay close attention to your interview procedures and revamp them so you can hire the type of talent you seek. For more information on the post-interview review process, feel free to use the resources here at Mighty Recruiter.