Your ability to hire the right employees is only as strong as your interviewing skills. That’s why your interview question skills need to be up to snuff if you’re going to compete effectively in the war for talent.
Job candidates get all kinds of advice about how to conduct themselves in interviews. Interviewers often don’t any behavioral interview training. When they do get training, it is often a crash course or an HR legal workshop on questions managers can and cannot ask.
But, as an interviewer, you’re the one who should control of the interview. If your skills aren’t as strong as they should be, the entire hiring process suffers because you’re not getting the information you need to make an informed decision.
Recruiters, hiring managers, and HR professionals can avoid this scenario by following these steps to mastering interviewing skills.
Brush up on the basics.
Even the most seasoned hiring managers were once thrown into the interview den and started interviewing candidates without ever learning the basics of interviewing. This is a big mistake especially when the cost of a bad hire runs in the thousands of dollars, even for an entry level worker.
The first and most essential step to learning basic interviewing skills is to read blogs, download ebooks, and visit websites. There are plenty of websites that offer interview question checklists and training videos. A quick Google search of “interview training for managers” produces over 35 million results. Local SHRM groups sponsor many seminars for first time managers as well as refresher courses for experienced recruiters.
Practice, practice, practice interviewing
Practice makes perfect, so put your skills to work by role playing an interview with people you know. Conduct a mock interview and ask for feedback on how you explained the job or the organization, how you evaluated the candidate, and whether you missed anything. Watch and listen to interviews on TV and radio. Listen to how they set the rapport and follow up on questions. Observe how they handle the nervous guest as well as the evasive one. Take notes, prepare questions you plan to ask, and practice again.
A good interviewer knows how to get the candidate to relax and when to challenge. Develop checklists handy for every type of phone screen and face-to-face interviews. Master the art of the interview and start adding real star power to your workforce.
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