16th January 2025 6 MIN READ •Resources •Talos ATS
Interviewing well isn’t just about asking the right questions. Sure, that’s important, but there’s so much more hiring managers simply skip over when interviewing, and there’s a chance it could be costing them both in time and great candidates.
Below are 10 interview tips for employers specifically chosen to help hiring managers perfect their interviewing technique, achieve every set objective and collect the data they need to make an informed, data-driven decision.
1. Know the problem before trying to solve it
All too often, you’ll see employers cram as much as they possibly can into their job description, turning their list of requirements into more of a wish list. Not great for both interviewer or candidate.
Instead your role’s description should be clear, focused and specific to the role. Not only will this attract more relevant applicants, but when it comes to interviewing, it’s much easier to find and receive the information you need from candidates, and how they will likely fit and adapt to your vacancy.
Make sure to ask yourself these questions at this stage of your recruitment process:
- What will the candidate’s main responsibilities be?
- Why are you looking to hire for this position?
- How have you struggled when recruiting in the past?
Before you go any further, have you got your interview checklist to hand? If not, you can get your copy of our downloadable PDF interview checklist below.
2. Define your objectives
It shouldn’t come as a shock that interviewing is much more than asking a couple of questions and hoping for the best. Interviewing, and certainly interviewing well, is an art.
Our next interviewing tip is simple, yet one that so many employers seem to gloss over. Defining your objectives doesn’t just help you stay on track during your interview, it helps to better assess your candidates.
Ask yourself:
- What type of candidate are you looking for?
- What skills would you like to see?
- What role-specific questions would you like to ask
- Once you have set your objectives, you need to settle on how you are going to grade your interviews.
For fair and transparent job interviews, we recommend using scorecards from Talos ATS to ensure each candidate is assessed against the same criteria. With Talos’ advanced applicant tracking system, you can even use scorecards to filter during your selection process.
3. Choose the right style of interview
Are you still reliant on in-person interviews? Or have you made the switch to video interviewing? Whatever your go-to interview system is, you’re really spoilt for choice.
Remote interviews – Video interviews are definitely a crowd please, especially in the early stages of the recruitment process with 50% of candidates preferring video interviews. Not only can video interviews help reduce time to hire but they allow candidates to interview from anywhere.
On-demand – A relatively new way to interview, on-demand interviews allow candidates to record responses to pre-set questions, which you can review at a later date.
In-person – The perfect option for those later interview stages when you can really determine which candidate is right for your organisation.
One of our most important interview tips for employers is to remember that each type of interview will be appropriate for different roles. Just because candidates prefer video interviews doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right interview style for your interviewing process.
4. Avoiding unconscious bias
Over the last few years, HR teams have been on a mission to phase out unconscious bias in their hiring process. And nowhere is it more prevalent than in the interview process. In fact, according to Quartz, 60% of interviewers will decide their candidate’s suitability within just 15 minutes of greeting them.
However, there are ways to mitigate this. With scorecards from Talos ATS interviewers, can standardise the recruitment process, assess candidates against set criteria and create a fairer selection process.
Scorecards are great tools for hiring managers to manage their own thoughts about each candidate. Another one of our interview tips for employers is to use scorecards in conjunction with other methods to identify values and competencies, such as LAB Profiling.
5. Formulate the right questions
The key to successful interviewing lies in preparation. Prep well, and your interviews will be a success. It’s as simple as that. Start by planning the right questions. Remember, you want to bring in the vest of the vest that will help push your business forward, so frame questions that will provide these answers.
Don’t just frame your questions around the job description, that’s no use to anybody. Instead prepare some competency questions and value based questions that relate back to the role.
An extra interview tip from us – try the questions you prepared on some of your co-workers and take onboard their feedback.
6. Provide candidates with key information
Next up in our list of interview tips for employers – help settle interviewee nerves by letting them know who they’ll be meeting on the day. Do you have an Interview panel ready? If not, be sure to add this to your interview checklist.
You can even go one step further and offer support and guidance on how to answer some of your predefined interview questions. At Talos360 we recommend using the STAR interviewing technique: Situation, Task, Action, Result.
Situation: Describe the situation and when it took place
Task: Explain the task and what was the goal
Action: Provide details about the action you took to attain this
Result: Conclude with the result of your action
7. Lead the interview
While you want your candidates talking for most of the interview (aim for a 80/20 split) y, you can’t let the interview drift onto tangents and lose focus. You must lead the interview and stick to the questions you have prepped.
Try not to waste all your interview prep by letting candidates drift onto other topics or discuss less relevant points. By sticking to your prep work, you can keep the interview ticking over and probe candidates for additional information at the right time.
One of the most important interviewing tips for employers is to be authoritative in your interviews. This is where all your prep work really comes into play.
No matter how much interview experience you have, it’s always good practice to run through your interview questions ahead of the interview, so when you are in front of a candidate you can be consistent in the way you ask questions.
An extra interviewing tip from us – be authentic! If it sounds authentic and not like you’re reading from a script, candidates will recognise that it’s important to you.
9. The Importance of your EVP
When interviewing, hiring managers often forget the influence your EVP (Employee Value Proposition) has on your chances of selling your organisation to a candidate.
The best interviewers understand how to leverage their company’s EVP and use it to sell their company vision, and why their people love working there.
Not only does this help to engage candidates from the get-go but it can motivate, improve brand awareness and even increase your new employee commitment by 30% if actively correctly.
10. Listening to your candidate
A good interview is all about listening to your candidate. If you’re doing the majority of the talking, what is the point in the candidate being there?
Our final interview tip for employers looking to up their interview game is to ensure you’re actively listening to your candidates’ responses. By actively listening you can pick up on subtle cues and determine whether your candidate will be the right culture fit.
If you’re having trouble taking everything in during the interview you can always record interviews and review after the interview has finished. Remember to disclose to your candidates if you are going to record interviews ahead of time, and ensure they are comfortable with this.
These interview tips will help you to conduct interviews with confidence and allow you to gain all the information you need about your candidates, so you can go and make a well-informed hiring decision.
Introducing…
Talos360’s Interview Checklist
If you’re looking for even more support with your interview technique, we’ve put together a free interview checklist for you to download. With interview tips throughout, we’ve broken down each stage to guide you through the interview process.
Download your FREE interview checklist
