Structured Interviewing is our best new interview tool

I originally published this internally as part of our on-going manager effectiveness training. Structured, fair and unbiased hiring has become a passion of mine and is something my team at Emerald focuses on day in and day out to make sure we're delivering a positive experience for all candidates. For a list of our current openings, please visit our Career Page.

Have you ever interviewed for a job and the process was, to put it bluntly, a complete mess? You had seven rounds of interviews where each interviewer asked you the same questions and didn’t know anything about you. Your recruiter never reached out to you except to schedule additional rounds, and you had no idea what to expect.

You end up getting the job offer after a long process, but are you excited to accept? Absolutely not!

To avoid common situations like this, we utilize a Structured Interview Process at Emerald . Structured Interviewing refers to the process of asking consistent, pre-determined questions to candidates and rating their responses on a standardized scale. This method, rather than the traditional interview process, is twice as effective in hiring a candidate with the skills you need.

Positive candidate experience is just one reason of many that more organizations are implementing structured interviewing. It’s also absolutely critical to ensuring inclusive and non-biased hiring. By not clearly defining the process, we’re leaving room for unconscious bias to sneak in, which could lead to leaning on bad habits, discriminatory hiring choices and even legal ramifications. Plus, structured interviewing ensures everyone is aligned on what success looks like in the role—ultimately leading to a better hire, faster. Who doesn’t want that?

Hopefully we've already convinced you structured interviewing in a must for your hiring process. So how does it actually work?

Your Talent Acquisition Partner will work with you to ensure a non-biased, fair and consistent process through:

• Training:?All hiring managers are required take an annual implicit bias training led by Talent Acquisition. This training forces you to become aware of your own biases (we all have them!) and provides actions to mitigate them through fair and consistent hiring. We’ll break down the entire hiring process and recommend best practices.
• Initial Phone Screen:?Your TA Partner will conduct an initial review and phone screen for qualified candidates and ask consistent questions to each, ensuring we’re collecting the same information for all candidates. These conversations are held over the phone instead of video to eliminate bias. Your TA Partner will most likely have no idea what your candidate looks like going into your first video interview, and that’s a great thing! It gives us the ability to objectively assess their skills and removes the “first impression” bias.
• Kick Off Meeting:?Before recruiting begins for a role, your TA Partner will schedule a kick-off meeting with you as hiring manager to collect information on logistics, the brand and tactical responsibilities, which will help us?sell the role to candidates. Equally important, you’ll work together to define the role. What skills are absolutely required? What will success look like in 3 months? 6 months? One year? These questions necessitate hiring managers to critically outline their position, and ultimately empower us to bring someone on that will be a winning hire not just on day one, but at year one.
• Interview Guides:?Your TA Partner will craft a position-specific Interview Guide for you based on the information collected during your kick-off meeting. This guide will outline the entire process and include suggested questions for each round that are aligned with the competencies required for success in the role. It also ensures there’s a reason for each conversation—every person on your team does not need to meet with the candidate before a hire is made. In fact, you’re more likely to lose the candidate by trying to squeeze in unnecessary conversations! Instead, you’ll work with your TA partner to identify relevant representatives from the team who will ask the right questions to collect the right information. Organization of interviewing roles is critical to a positive and efficient process.
• On-going Partnership and Support:?Your TA Partner is just that—a partner! We all have the same goal of continuing to grow Emerald with the best talent by filling positions with qualified candidates. Talent Acquisition will partner with you before, during and even after your hiring on any questions or on-going needs. We’re always here as a resource!

Structured interviewing is an art—while the name structure may imply it follows a template, it’s actually an extremely personalized process! Each organization must do a deep dive into their needs, culture and existing teams before being able to adequately pre-determine interview questions and panels. It’s also an on-going process. We know needs change, timelines shift, things happen. Pre-defining your role and process doesn’t mean you’re now held to rigid and boring interviews—it’s exactly the opposite. Structuring interviewing allows you to eliminate the guess-work and back and forth, and easily assess candidates on what’s most important. Plus, it leaves more time for you and your TA Partner to sell the role to your top candidates, culminating in everyone’s favorite email: the offer acceptance!