Create a structured interview process

[Joywtseo421]

I never really believed in structured interviews. I thought I could sit back, feet up on the desk, twirling a pen and just “shoot the breeze.” What a disaster. I’ve hired some of the worst candidates ever that way.

Instead, a formalized interview structure allows me to get the general gist of each candidate on their own merits, not just because they wowed me in a pizza joint. Plus, when I’m in the midst of a hiring spree (aka when I’m bringing nepal phone number resource in our next round of seasonal interns) I can accurately compare candidates based on their level of engagement in the conversation and the thought behind their responses. I’m able to see it in a more objective light instead of how I felt at the time of their interview.

According to a study, structured interviews are 81% more accurate than unstructured ones. Don’t worry, after enough interviews, you realize you have to have a general flow. Ours goes like this:

What made you decide to apply to Red Branch Media? Their answer lets me know if they understand our specialties (HR Tech, Finance, Non-Profit) and also what about us attracted them.
I then explain the different departments. This gives me a chance to talk about who we are, what we know and a little about how we do things. I call them “buckets” and at the end, I ask the candidate which bucket interests them the most. This tells me (duh) where they’d like to be and gives me an idea of how to “plant” them when and if they get the job.
I tell them about the kind of person who is successful here. Then I ask them which quality I mentioned they most identify with. (We also have a formal psychometric assessment later in the process.)
Finally, I tell them what to expect next, which is a work sample exercise and an in-person interview if received by deadline. I always let them know it is up to them to email me after our phone screen if they still want the job (I can be intense).
It’s not a perfect system but it works and (both the structure and the behavioral questions are) backed by research. Talent expert Laszlo Bock had this to say in his book:

In 1998, Frank Schmidt and John Hunter looked at 19 different assessment techniques and found that unstructured job interviews were pretty bad at predicting how someone would perform once hired.

Unstructured interviews have an r2 of 0.14, meaning that they can explain only 14% of an employee’s performance. This is somewhat ahead of reference checks (explaining 7% of performance), ahead of the number of years of work experience (3%). The best predictor of how someone will perform in a job is a work sample test (29%).