The interview may very well be the most critical part of the hiring process. While the goal is to find the best possible fit for the position and your company, the interview process is also a chance for you to communicate about your employer brand. And the interview is often where your candidate forms a lasting impression of your company. In fact, Jobvite’s 2016 Job Seeker Nation study found that nearly half of candidates said that the interview makes the biggest impact on their impression of a job.
The interview process has a huge impact on candidate experience. Just the interview day itself can make or break your candidate’s experience with your company and desire for the job. So how do you ensure the schedule is seamless and your candidate isn’t left sitting in a conference room waiting? With all the importance placed on the interview, it’s surprisingly easy to skimp on the details and deliver a less than stellar experience. Read on to learn some easy ways to put your best foot forward and ensure a flawless interview day.
Be prepared
It seems obvious. But in the busy day-to-day sometimes we don’t prepare as well for interviews as we should. And it’s even more of a challenge to make sure your entire hiring team is fully prepared for a great interview day. But it really can make a huge difference in terms of a positive experience—both for you and your candidate.
Make sure everyone on your hiring team really understands the position and the skills and characteristics needed to fill it. Do your homework about the candidate and make sure your hiring team is familiar with their resume and credentials in advance of the actual interview. Create a list of interview questions that you can ask each candidate (for easier comparison later) and ensure those questions really get to the heart of the experience and behavior that you want to see in that perfect candidate. Assign sets of questions or areas of experience to explore to each person who will interview your candidate. That way, your candidate isn’t subjected to the same old clichéd interview questions.
Collaborate, don’t clash with your hiring team
An unfortunate side effect of the recruiting process is that it can put recruiters and hiring teams at odds. While they share a goal—to find and hire that perfect candidate quickly and efficiently—communication frustrations are rampant.
Recruiters often complain that hiring teams don’t know what they want and don’t provide timely feedback. While hiring teams criticize recruiters for not moving fast enough or communicating frequently enough during the hiring process. What’s more, these issues grow exponentially if you have a large team weighing in on a hire.
Here’s where technology can really help. Especially on interview day. Before your candidate comes in for the interview, have a check-in to align your hiring team and make sure they all know the key areas of need. Make this easy by contacting your hiring group through your Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Even better, give your team access to a mobile hiring app that becomes your central communications hub, letting them coordinate with each other on the go.
Speed the scheduling process
Scheduling candidate interviews often turns into a recruiter’s worst nightmare. Coordinating schedules across multiple interviewers is a major challenge and even a minor change in interview time can send you scurrying to revamp a schedule. While it’s painful to manage internally, it can also leave a bad taste in your candidate’s mouth if you have to reschedule several times. Or worse yet, you could lose that perfect candidate to the competition
because they were more efficient at getting through the interview process.
A mobile hiring app gives your hiring team everything they need to maintain interview momentum. The app gives you a single, central way to communicate with your entire hiring team. Hit a snag in the scheduling process? Use the app to reschedule on the fly. Your next interviewer is stuck in a meeting and can’t make their assigned interview time? Use the app to reach out to the team and shift interview slots quickly. By centralizing your communication and coordination, you make sure that your candidate is never exposed to scheduling glitches. Your interviewers know exactly where to be and when. The result? Your interview schedule goes off without a hitch and your candidate has a great experience.
Get better feedback, faster
Securing feedback on a candidate after interview day can be an
exercise in frustration. Chasing down busy hiring teams by email or phone is a common scenario and a major headache for recruiters. You want to get feedback fast and the last thing you want to do is keep a candidate hanging. Did you know on average, it takes over 17 hours for a hiring team member to provide interview feedback? In a hot job market the clock is ticking and you’re in a race against the competition to land the best talent. You need feedback and you need it fast.
Here’s another place where technology is your friend. That mobile hiring app makes the process of providing feedback as simple as clicking a button. Hiring teams can evaluate candidates on
the go—anytime and anywhere. For recruiters that means no more waiting for days for feedback. Just a few clicks and your hiring teams can deliver near instantaneous evaluations. All of a sudden that evaluation process that took days shrinks to mere hours, and chances are, you’ll get better and more detailed feedback while the interview is still fresh in their minds.
Armed with these tips, you’re ready to roll out a flawless interview day and impress your candidate with a great experience. And in today’s hotly competitive job market, that could make all the difference in your chances of landing the best of the best talent.
Amanda Van Nuys, is the Senior Director of Marketing Communications at Jobvite, a leading recruiting platform.
