How can you ensure interview consistency and validity?

1 Define your criteria

Before you start interviewing, you need to have a clear idea of what you are looking for in a candidate. This means defining the competencies, skills, and attributes that are relevant for the role and the organization. You can use job descriptions, performance standards, or competency frameworks to guide you. Once you have your criteria, you can design your interview questions and rating scales to match them.

2 Use structured interviews

Structured interviews are interviews that follow a predefined format, where all candidates are asked the same questions in the same order and evaluated using the same criteria. Structured interviews are more consistent and valid than unstructured interviews, where questions and ratings are improvised or vary across candidates. Structured interviews reduce bias, improve reliability, and increase predictive validity. To conduct a structured interview, you need to prepare your questions, rating scales, and scoring methods in advance, and stick to them throughout the process.

3 Choose appropriate questions

The type of questions you ask can affect the consistency and validity of your interviews. You want to ask questions that are relevant, specific, and behavioral. Relevant questions are questions that relate to the criteria you defined for the role. Specific questions are questions that ask for concrete examples, facts, or details, rather than vague or general answers. Behavioral questions are questions that ask candidates to describe how they handled a past situation or how they would handle a hypothetical situation, rather than what they would do or say in general. Behavioral questions are more valid because they reflect actual performance and behavior, rather than intentions or opinions.

4 Train your interviewers

Another factor that can influence the consistency and validity of your interviews is the skill and experience of your interviewers. Interviewers need to be trained on how to ask questions, listen to answers, probe for more information, avoid leading or suggestive questions, and rate candidates objectively and consistently. Interviewers also need to be aware of their own biases, assumptions, and stereotypes, and how to minimize their impact on their judgments. Training your interviewers can improve their confidence, competence, and credibility, as well as the quality and accuracy of your interviews.

5 Review your results

Finally, you need to review your interview results and evaluate their consistency and validity. You can do this by checking for inter-rater reliability, which is the degree of agreement among different interviewers who rated the same candidate. You can also check for criterion-related validity, which is the degree of correlation between the interview scores and the actual performance or outcomes of the candidates. Reviewing your results can help you identify any gaps, errors, or inconsistencies in your interview process, and make adjustments or improvements as needed.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?