4 WAYS TO CREATE A POSITIVE CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE AFTER THE INTERVIEW

1. Don’t ghost - sounds intuitive, right? yet, so many companies don’t get back to candidates after they invested time and effort in the hiring process.

2. Don’t stall - waiting for an interview answer can be a nerve-wracking experience. If the time to make a decision is prolonged, keep the candidate informed and notify them when they can expect an answer, even if it’s a general range.

3. Provide feedback - in case you reject a candidate, don’t just respond generically with the “we decided to move forward with more suitable candidates” line. They invested their time and hopes in the process and what you can give back to them is extremely valuable — feedback. For example, “we feel your storytelling and data/python capabilities need to improve.” For even better feedback, be as specific as possible and, if possible, share examples from the interview. Some candidates might push back on the feedback, but most will appreciate the opportunity you gave them to improve for their next opportunity.

4. Collect feedback - both from candidates that were rejected and hired. Besides the fact that it will help you learn and improve your hiring practices, you are giving candidates a voice, which is a way to show respect and appreciation.

8 WAYS TO CREATE A POSITIVE CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE DURING THE INTERVIEW

For many, an interview is a stressful situation. As an interviewer you have the power both to create a positive experience for the candidate that will allow them to be at their best or induce more stress and create a negative candidate experience (see our #interviewhorrorstories).

So what can you do to help a candidate be at their best?

1. Smile - welcome the candidate with a smile — it’s as simple as that. This will immediately make the candidate feel welcomed and relieve stress.

2. (very short) Small talk - “How was getting here?”, “How has the process been so far?”, “How are you feeling today?” These types of questions help the candidate ease into the interview.
Disclaimer: do not get caught up in a conversation that can flow to irrelevant directions that might bias you, such as the candidate lives in the same neighborhood as you, and take up precious interview time.

3. Introduce yourself - your name, role, and short background.

4. Manage expectations - regarding interview goals, duration, stages (if they exists), note taking (”I will be taking notes throughout the interview in order not to rely on my memory, but on what you actually say”), allotted time for questions (”We will allocate 10 minutes at the end of the interview for your questions”).

5. Allow time for thought - some of the questions asked in an interview require pulling specific facts and stories from memory and some require heavy information processing. Not all candidates are “quick on the draw.” Allow candidates time to think and let them know it is ok to take their time. In cases when a reasonable amount of time has passed you can offer the candidate to go back to the question later.

6. Leave time for candidate’s questions - we sometime get so caught up with asking the candidate questions and gathering as much information as we can that we do not leave enough time for their questions. Remember, you can also learn a lot from a candidate’s questions and that the candidate also has to choose you. It’s your responsibility to provide them with sufficient information to make an #informedecision.

7. Thank the candidate for their time - again simple, but shows respect to the candidate’s time.

8. Share information on the next steps - “Expect to hear from us in the next X days, In case we move forward the next steps of the process are…”

3 WAYS TO CREATE A POSITIVE CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE BEFORE AN INTERVIEW

Before an interview, transparency and communication are the main contributors to a positive candidate experience: 1. Set expectations - regarding interview date and time, number of interviewers and their role, interview duration, interview medium (F2F, Zoom, Teams etc.) 2. Share information - what will be the focus of the interview? what types of questions will be asked? will the interview include some kind of a professional task? simulation? challenge? If you have sample questions that you can share with candidates in advance that will minimize uncertainty and allow the candidates to be at their best. If you are using an interview or video platform to conduct the interviews, make sure you share instructions on how to connect to the platform and check for audio and video. 3. Make candidates feel welcomed - send an email or a text a day before reminding the candidate about the interview and convey the feeling of anticipation from the organization’s side to meet and get to know the candidate better. Use phrases like: “We are excited/looking forward/anticipating to get to know you better.” You can also create anticipation from the candidate’s side by writing: “During the interview, the interviewers will share more about the position and department and how do these connect to the organization’s mission,” “You will have a chance to learn about…,” or “You’re invited to ask questions regarding…”

INTERVIEW HORROR STORY

Interviewer: What football team do you support?

Me: Chelsea

Interviewer: Good, we have too many f***ing Arsenal fans here, you start on Monday.

*From the web

INTERVIEW HORRORR STORY

Had an interview that I thought was going relatively well. At the end, the interviewer said “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but I’ve interviewed a lot of people today, and you’re the first person I feel genuinely really confident about.”

And then I never heard from them again.

*From the web

Please don’t "tell me about yourself"

3 reasons why asking “tell me about yourself?” is bad interviewing practice:

1. Broad and unfocused: As an interviewer, you’re racing against the clock to collect the information that will enable you to decide if the candidate fits the position. “Tell me about yourself” can take the interview anywhere, including places that aren’t necessarily related to the job’s relevant skills.
2. Candidate experience: ”Tell me about yourself” is a stressful question for many candidates. “What does the interviewer want to hear? about my experience? hobbies? relevant skills? etc.?” A vague, open-ended question like this needlessly adds stress to the interview process.
3. Interviewer bias: This is a great place for bias to creep in. Candidates that have done their homework about the interviewer can impress them with irrelevant facts like "we went to the same school" that automatically generate biases like "similar to me" bias.

#informedecisions #recruiting #hiring #interviews #candidateexperience

SHOULD AN INTERVIEW BE CONDUCTED AS A CONVERSATION

Lately, we’ve been hearing quite a lot that interviews should be held as conversations. This is what we have to say about it: interviews and conversations are inherently different.

A conversation is a talk that "flows", does not necessarily have a structure, and in which both sides are equally in charge. However, an interview is a limited time frame where the interviewer is in charge of asking directed, relevant, and fair questions aimed to assess job related skills, values and motivations. The responsibility lies with the interviewer to make the most of the interview and to manage time in an effective and efficient manner.

This doesn’t mean an interview has to be technical and rigid. There are different techniques to make an interview more conversational, but still keep it fairly structured and to the point. More on this on upcoming posts.

#informedecisions #interviews #skillsbasedhiring #hiring #candidateexperience