MightyRecruiterPart of what makes an interviewer an effective one is knowing which questions to ask and how to ask them. Why waste time by asking hundreds of questions when you can ask fewer to get the information you seek? The right questions will provide you with more insight and information about your candidate’s true skills, value and mindset than you think. If you’re currently in the process of revamping your hiring processes, then it’s also a good idea for you to learn how to dig beneath the surface in your candidate interviews to make better hiring decisions.
Ask Good Follow Up Questions
You should always assume that the first response a candidate gives you is one they’ve programmed themselves to give. That automated answer is not going to really provide you with the information you’re looking for. So be prepared to ask really good follow up questions immediately afterwards. The candidate’s response to follow up questions will provide you with more details and useful information. Great ways to follow up on responses, include: – Please tell me more. Elaborate. – How or Why so? – Why is that important to you? – What steps did you take to ensure the outcome? – How did you achieve that goal? Remember, you are learning how to dig beneath the surface in your candidate interviews, so you should use these responses after each interview question to elicit the information you need to make your hiring decisions.
Pay Attention to Details
People tend to be really vague when they are embellishing answers in hopes of tricking or impressing an interviewer. They are so involved with trying to give answers that sound plausible that they only make themselves sound untruthful. As you listen to your interviewees, always remember to ask for more details in order to discern whether or not a candidate is being truthful. The more details they can provide, the more likely that candidate is being honest with you.
Match Their Body Language
Just like you are trying to read and assess job candidates, they are trying to read and assess you. Set the stage and maintain it all throughout the interview. Match their body language, energy level and speaking tone of the person you are interviewing. This will help to make them feel more receptive towards you and possibly help them to open up and be more forthcoming with the information you are trying to gather.
Know When to Pause
Although you may be trying to avoid uncomfortable silences and lulls in conversation, sometimes it’s very useful to pause in the midst of things. Pausing occasionally in the right places during an interview can help to provide you with more insight to the candidate. They may just say something that works in their favor.
Dig Further to Learn More About Accomplishments and Goals
Part of your role as an interviewer is to discern good candidates from not so good ones. You need to find out which candidates are going to be an asset to your company. You also need to know how to dig beneath the surface in your candidate interviews. To do so, you need to dig further into responses so you can draw good conclusions from them. For example, if you’re looking for a sales professional, then you should be looking for someone who was a rock star at their previous place of employment. If during the interview they say they were an asset because they increased sales in a particular area by 200 percent, they should also be able to tell you exactly how they did it. To get the details you need, ask them to provide you with the details you seek, such as the actions they took and why they decided to take them. Being a good interviewer is a skill that can only be acquired by practice. To improve your skills so you can become a better interviewer, review and pay attention to your past interviews. Evaluate your weaknesses and strengths. Take stock of areas where you need to improve and learn to ask better interview questions. No matter how engaging any particular candidate may be, keep things professional and avoid saying too much, especially during the early stages of a multistage interview. By following each interview question with a good follow up question, you can improve your effectiveness as an interviewer and make better hiring recommendations and decisions. As you interview more people, you’ll become more in tune with how to dig beneath the surface in your candidate interviews. For more ways on how to dig beneath the surface in your candidate interviews and to become a more effective interviewer, Mighty Recruiter has resources to help you to enhance your skills.