How do you make sure your recruiting interviews are consistent and efficient?

100% THIS. The best way to develop and define the interview process is through a job kickoff meeting. As Nikita mentioned below, it's important to have a kickoff meeting with each new role and/or hiring manager. This is a 30-60 min meeting where you define your hiring criteria upfront with the manager by reviewing the JD, team structure and dynamic, and candidate and industry data (again, Talent Insights has been useful for the data part). The hiring criteria should then be fed into the interview plan and to mitigate biases, each interviewer should be given questions and/or attributes to focus on so each candidate is given the same/similar experience, and interviewers don't overlap with their questions.

Interviews boil down to one thing: a relentless pursuit of signal amidst the noise. First, script your game. Develop a consistent set of questions that probe for competence and character. This isn't about regurgitating answers; it's about storytelling, resilience, and a hunger to grow. Next, structure equals efficiency. Timebox each segment. Dive deep but keep an eye on the clock. Efficiency isn't about speed; it's about depth in limited time. Finally, bring diversity into your panel. Different perspectives unearth different facets of a candidate, providing a richer, more dimensional view. Let’s find those stars.

In agreeance with Alex below! In the job kickoff meeting, defining the criteria is critical. Ensuring the questions are behavioral based and align with the duties of the job, where our candidates can shine and share examples of how they have handled responsibilities of the role. For all of my interviews, I confirm with our hiring leader what questions I will ask so they aren't asked again in later interviews, but also to demonstrate why the candidates are a fit after the screening. I ensure all the questions are fair & consistent for every candidate, & give insight on what the leader shared about the role, vs. just the job posting. Be on time, set expectations for the process, give feedback, transparent with timelines & follow up.

Recruiting Kick-off meetings. It is very important with every new role, recruiter and hiring manager set up 30mins to discuss about the role. Recruiter should ask all questions that a candidate could ask during interviews. It helps in knowing your win and leverage areas. This eventually leads to DEFINING the hiring criteria. What I as a recruiter always strive for is, the interviewers are also included in the Kick-off meeting. This ensures that everyone responsible in the hiring chain is on the same page.

The best way to go forward is having, a STRUCTURED Interview, and a written criteria extracted from JD to do the marking. This may sound beginner-level, but this is critical to improve the quality of hires. While interviewing, It's easy to unintentionally get, Biased towards someone's ideology, Judgemental about someone's beliefs, Or Ignorant of someone's struggle, I have seen the senior interviewers struggling to avoid these biases, and a CONSCIOUS effort is required to overcome this.

In order to evaluate all the candidates on the same criteria, it is important to have a standardized set of questions that are directly related to the job requirements. However, listening to the candidates and adjusting (to some point) the questions is also important.

During my candidate interviews, no matter the position, I always ask the following question.... "If you could wave a magic wand and have ANY job in the world with ANY company, what would that be?" This is often followed by a pause, a laugh and/or a genuine smile. The intention is to encourage candidates to show some of their human side. A moment to dream, and bring imagination into what is the long-term career goal. This question allows us both to understand more about the individual and understand the long-term fit for a particular position/career path.

One of the most common mistakes is that hiring teams rush to advertise a role to the market before fully-fleshing out the interview process. Recruiters need to hold hiring leaders accountable, ensuring that intake documentation is thorough, questions/ competencies are fully scoped, and profile calibration is aligned BEFORE enabling candidates to apply. In the end, this will actually save resources and reduce time to hire.

The key to building interview questions is to do so around the position (based off the Kick Off Call!) and to ask the same questions to all candidates. This ensures you are comparing apples to apples. Asking open ended, behavior-based questions, is key. Let them do the talking. To be a real partner to your leader, do some research and actually seek to understand the skills you are looking to measure. This will allow you to ask that extra question and bring only top quality candidates to your organization... Not to mention build your own brand as an expert with your leadership team.

It's important to establish a clear interview process upfront. This includes communicating the number of rounds, types of interviews, and who will be involved at each stage. Once that's set, it's my job to promptly schedule interviews and provide all the necessary details to the candidates. I always make sure to consider their time zones and offer flexible time slots. Sending out calendar invites and reminders is crucial to keep everyone on track. I also work closely with hiring managers and interviewers to minimize any rescheduling or delays. Consistent communication is key to ensuring that candidates are well-prepared and punctual. I always strive to make the interview process as smooth and stress-free as possible for everyone involved.

Online calendaring software works great, but it still may not be good enough. Successful recruitment is about meeting candidates where they are at. Some populations may not be available during typical business hours so its crucial to find a way to connect accordingly and eliminate redundancies in your interview process.

One thing that I really found important is, if you are using a tool - configure it properly! Give yourself a buffer of 5-10 mins before and 5-10 mins after, if all the messages are correct; double triple-check them because they usually lead to a lot of issues. This is vital for you to set yourself for the conversation is cool off from the previous engagement you had. It's also important to give notice to your candidate, lets say that you usually give a warning that conversations can be up to 60 minutes long, so they can prepare the internet and so on. I usually also block them 5 minutes before the actual time of the interview so they get reminded of it.

I can't preach scheduling enough. Smile and dial has it's role to play sometimes, but if you schedule your screens you and the candidate are better prepared for a productive conversation. I also like to schedule buffers between appointments as well as a maximum number per day that I will adjust depending on the req load I have. Typically I will schedule up to 5 screens per day. I schedule 30 minutes for the screen with a 15 minute buffer before and after. I limit myself to 5 because it gives me the appropriate amount of time I need to be thorough in preparing, cleaning up notes and getting submittals out.

I have found it's easiest for me to have blocks of time set aside for interviewing. I try to avoid back to back interviews. If I do end up in a back to back situation, I let the second candidate know. If it appears I'll run over, I will shoot them an email to let them know I may be a few minutes later than expected.

I have the same set of questions (consistent) for each candidate to evaluate what the candidate wants versus what I currently have. Open-ended questions that map what's on their mind..."why did this position grab your attention? What have you done in the past that compares? What made you successful? What would you change to improve the outcome if you had the chance?" The conversation will either steer itself into your current requirements (ideally) or into a discussion on what strategy the two of you can put together for their future. You gain respect, trust, and a lasting relationship. You can also easily assess the level of interest by the effort the candidate puts together to respond.

To ensure consistency and efficiency of interviews, start by implementing two key elements: 1. Utilize preconstructed interview guides featuring questions aligned with company values that explore attention to detail, decision-making abilities, communication skills, organizational/planning capabilities, flexibility/adaptability, technical skill and learning agility. For managerial roles, the guide should also encompass areas like delegation, performance management, and employee development. 2. Implement interview assignments for members of the hiring team. This approach helps prevent redundant and unproductive interviews, ensuring that each team member contributes meaningfully to the assessment process.

Additionally, maintaining a structured and consistent approach throughout the interview process helps in making fair and objective assessments. Treating every candidate equally and offering them the same information and opportunities ensures a level playing field and upholds your organization's reputation for fairness and professionalism.

Be enthusiastic about your opportunity before you pick up the phone to conduct your interview. It's simple. Candidates want to join engaging and motivating environments and speak to recruiters who are genuinely interested in learning about them. Don't bore them with only basic screening questions and always provide transparency on the next steps.

When I interview candidates, I don’t follow a script. I listen to how the person on the other end answers the phone and I base my questions off of their energy. A lot of times candidates feel uncomfortable in a traditional interview setting so when I try to do is make it seem more like we are two old friends having coffee and just catching up so when I ask questions about their work history, I’m asking what they’ve been up to for the past several years. This let their guard down a little bit and gives me a truer answer because they’re being more honest and open. It works like a charm every time.

Evaluating candidate interviews is crucial to make informed hiring decisions. Assess candidates against predefined criteria, noting strengths and areas needing clarification. Promptly score and document impressions, aiding discussions among the hiring team for consensus. Swift evaluations help maintain interview context and candidate nuances for better decisions. Collaboration within the team ensures well-rounded perspectives and reduces bias in the selection process.

As a tech recruiter, my secret weapon is the assessment sheet. It helps me keep tabs on each candidate's journey. Tech folks might not tick all the criteria boxes, and that's okay—it's a learning curve. I believe in helping people grow. Explaining this curve to clients and project leads before technical interviews sets everyone up for success. It's not just about finding a match; it's about creating opportunities for career growth, and that's what matters most to me.

From TA perspective, it’s truly down to the appropriate training of hiring managers; we need to raise awareness about bias and fairness in recruiting process; one thing I am extremely wary of is comparing a candidate to candidate: absolute no-go! It’s like comparing apples to pears - candidates need evaluating against job requirements and not comparing against one another.

I appreciate the emphasis on evaluating candidates based on performance and fit, but I'd like to highlight a concern with the term "fit." While it's important to assess if a candidate aligns with the company's values and culture, placing too much emphasis on "fit" can inadvertently lead to bias and exclusion. Instead, I advocate for a more holistic approach that considers a candidate's knowledge, skills, and abilities alongside their potential cultural contribution. By valuing diversity of thought, experiences, and backgrounds, companies can enrich their teams and foster innovation. This shift in focus encourages a more inclusive hiring process that ultimately benefits both the company and its employees.

Improvement should be a continuous process. After every 3 to 4 interviews, take an overall glance, to see if the process is being smooth. Send out feedback surveys to every candidate who would have spoken to any of the interviewers including the recruiter. This would help us gain certain insights. Ofcourse, there should be parameters and specific question to be asked. Evaluating these and keeping track on industry trends can be helpful in improving the process.

Interview processes will always and forever require updates and improvement. Setting up anonymous and automatic surveys to send to your candidates and hiring managers is an important part of the process and a feature that’s available in most Applicant Tracking Systems. The feedback you’ll receive from them will directly impact the way you hire!

Improving the hiring process is an ongoing journey! There are always things which can be improved. Some key metrics/ data to monitor are: - Passthrough rates - Time to Hire - Offer Acceptance / Decline rate - Source of hire - Candidate experience scores or feedback - Length of time or performance in the role - Feedback from hiring managers and/ or stakeholders Continuously monitoring these metrics will help provide key insights and to make data based decisions when implementing improvements to the hiring process.

You may have heard the saying "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". This statement directly applies to the interview process. Ensure that your interview process is succinct, up-to-date, and void of unnecessary requirements or redundancies.

- Define evaluation areas - List out the available interviewers along with new ones who can be onboarded - Ensure some level of feedback loop to bring objectivity and consistency across interviewers - Measure the distribution of scores to ensure good calibration - Capture a rating from candidate after each interview on traits like difficulty, friendliness, knowledge, comfort, problem clarity, etc. It takes a conscious effort from the recruitment team along with the leadership to develop a consistent interviewing framework to hire good talent. Not to mention this needs to be repeatable to ensure any slip ups are found quickly.

As a tech talent scout, I stay updated by chatting with developer friends, following tech stars on LinkedIn, and doing constant research. Here's a tip: try coding—it's not just for devs, and it's actually pretty fun. Stay connected with tech; your candidates will notice!

Toujours penser à l’expérience candidat ! - quelle sera la vision du candidat, de l’entreprise à travers le process ? - que va t’il penser des salariés de l’entreprise en rencontrant les différents acteurs du process ? - que va t il raconter à ses proches après les différents entretiens - va t’il recommander l’entreprise à son réseau ? - même si il n’est pas sélectionné gardera t il une bonne image ?

Learn from your own biases. Psychological interviewing effects such as the recency, primacy, halo effect, similarity, and confirmation biases all work against equal opportunity employment for your candidates. Recognize the signs and make a conscience effort to mitigate these biases to ensure you select the best fit for the role.

Remember that the person you are interviewing is also interviewing you. The way you present and conduct yourself during the interview process can impress or disappoint the other party. And people talk. And you want to make sure, that even in the instance where you have not hired the candidate, they will only have good things to say about you.

You must have a structured interview process ahead of time that you follow with each candidate with all their interactions they have within your company. Your job is to determine if they have the aptitude and skills needed to do the job well. So your questions need to draw that out. Make it easy for a candidate. Not an inguiry. Have get interactions with everyone. Then your interviewing well. It's not rocket science. But it does take upfront planning and time. It's well worth the upfront work.