Structured interviewing practices reduce bias and promote fairness in the hiring process. These best practices involve asking all candidates the same questions in a standardized order and evaluating their answers with a predetermined rating system.
Structured interviews provide a more transparent, professional, and objective assessment of candidate skills, experiences, and qualities and help companies avoid the millions that poor hires cost annually.
Define the Job
Elucidating the function and its duties will help guarantee that the staff members of your organization can accomplish their objectives. This will also help to minimize gaps in responsibilities, which can reduce employee productivity and cause them to overburden themselves.
Establishing a structured interview process like Greenhouse hiring process helps recruiters and hiring managers accurately assess candidates without making decisions on instinct or bias. By asking the same questions to every candidate and evaluating candidates against a standard set of criteria, the structured interview process will ensure all applicants have a consistent experience.
Setting up the structure of structured interviews can take some upfront time, but this effort will pay dividends throughout the recruitment process. When all interviewers are on board with the structured interview approach, it will be easier to avoid bias and make better hiring decisions, leading to more competent hires. Creating a list of the essential hard and soft abilities for the position is the best place to start.
Identify Your Ideal Candidate
Using structured interviews, your team will be able to identify the hard and soft skills that are essential for success. Clear guidelines will help reduce hiring bias and introduce candidates into your pipeline that you may have otherwise missed.
Once you have a list of skills, broadcast them to the interview team so they know what you are looking for and can focus their questions around those areas. It’s also essential to identify and share the business goals related to this role (i.e., bringing in more contracts and shipping a new product feature set one quarter sooner) so the team can be sure the candidate will fit into your organizational culture.
As you interview, ask the candidate to describe a typical day in their current or most recent role and listen for how they structure their time, handle crises, take breaks, etc. This will give you an insight into their work style that you wouldn’t get from asking about their experience.
Conduct Interviews
Structured interviews provide a better candidate experience and a more effective process for hiring. But, to be successful, all stakeholders must fully embrace structured interview processes.
This means that everyone on the interview team is trained to use structured interviews to maximize the effectiveness of the process. It also means that standardized questions are used to assess candidates equitably, mitigating unconscious bias and allowing each candidate to highlight their best attributes.
This requires a significant commitment of time and effort, particularly for those interviewers who are used to following their gut instincts or asking more tailored questions that they think are relevant. However, it is a critical investment because hiring the right talent is more than a business imperative; it’s about building an inclusive workplace built on shared organizational goals. And it’s the only way to ensure your organization is a great workplace.
Offer
A detailed hiring process is critical to finding the best candidate and reducing the time needed to fill roles. However, adequately managed, structured interviews can become more convenient and enjoyable for candidates, recruiters, and hiring managers.
A standardized interview process encourages interviewers to make evidence-based decisions, reduces bias, and allows candidates to be assessed objectively. Using structured interviewing can help you find the best talent more quickly, improve the quality of your hires, and save you money in the long run.
Once you’ve found the right fit for your role, it’s time to offer a job. A well-written, compelling job offer can help you secure the top candidate and ensure your new hire starts positively.
