Finding employees for your team is a crucial part of good management. In most businesses, this responsibility might start in HR, but it will eventually be time for hiring managers to interview and provide input
. How can you make sure you’re conducting the best interviews that help you identify the best talent?
- Prepare your questions: What questions are the most important in order to assess this person and evaluate them as a potential future part of your team? What questions will give you the best sense of someone’s accomplishments, skills and personality? Spend some time thinking about the questions that you know you want answers to and how they’ll help you understand your candidate.
- Allow for a conversation: You want to be prepared, but you don’t necessarily need to stick to a script. Allowing a real conversation to develop gives you a better overall sense of the candidate. Understanding who they are and what’s important to them can help you assess the way their personality might fit with your team. One of the most important responsibilities as a hiring manager is to not just find the best talent for the position but to do it in a way that allows you preserve the team dynamic that’s already working for your group. A conversation also means that you’ll be listening better and learning more than a simple list of questions could tell you.
- Be ready to answer: A candidate will likely be asking questions during the course of the conversation. They’re interviewing you and your organization for a good match as much as you are interviewing them. Be prepared to answer their questions or find out the answers and get back to them if you’re not sure.
Better interviews often lead you to connect with better candidates and form better relationships with potential new hires. Treating the interview less as an interrogation and more as a learning opportunity for both parties can help ensure that you are able to bring the best talent on board for your business.