FIVE WAYS TO MAKE YOUR JOB INTERVIEWS MORE INCLUSIVE AND DIVERSE

Job interviews are a crucial part of the hiring process, but they can also perpetuate discrimination and bias if not handled properly.

Here are five ways to make your job interviews more inclusive and diverse:

1. Review the position’s description and requirements: Make sure that the language you use in your job description and requirements is gender-neutral and doesn't exclude any particular group of people.

2. Train your interviewers: Provide training to your interviewers on unconscious bias and cultural competency. This will help them avoid making assumptions about candidates based on their appearance, race, or background.

3. Create a structured interview process: Use a consistent set of questions for all candidates and avoid relying on the interviewer's gut feeling. This will help reduce bias and increase the diversity of your hiring.

4. Be mindful of your body language: Be aware of your nonverbal communication during the interview, including maintaining eye contact, smiling, and nodding when appropriate.

5. Encourage diversity in your recruitment process: Consider recruiting from a variety of sources and actively reach out to diverse communities. This will increase the diversity of your candidate pool and give you a better chance of hiring a diverse and inclusive team.

By implementing these strategies, you can create a more inclusive and diverse hiring process that will help you to find the best candidates for your organization.

Remember, diversity and inclusion are not only values, but also drives better performance and innovation.

WHY INCREASING DIVERSITY IN YOUR HIRING PIPELINE WILL NOT NECESSARILY RESULT IN MORE DIVERSE HIRES

Increasing diversity in your hiring pipeline is an important step in creating a more diverse and inclusive workforce, but it is not a guarantee that your hiring will become more diverse.

Here are several reasons why:

1. Unconscious bias: Even with a diverse candidate pool, unconscious bias can still play a role in the hiring process. Interviewers may unconsciously favor candidates who are similar to themselves or who fit a certain stereotype.

2. Lack of diversity in the decision-making process: If the decision-makers in the hiring process are more homogenous (in ethnicity, gender, perspectives), chances for hiring diverse candidates decrease, as they may apply stereotypes and not appreciate diverse candidates.

3. Lack of inclusion: Even if a diverse candidate is hired, they may not stay with the company if they do not feel welcomed and included. A company culture that is not inclusive or welcoming to diverse individuals can push out diverse hires and discourage diverse candidates from applying or accepting a job offer.

It's important to understand the goal is not to "check a box," but to create an equitable and inclusive hiring process and work environment where everyone can perform at their best.

Therefore, it is important to remember that increasing diversity in your hiring pipeline is only one step in creating a more diverse and inclusive workforce. It is crucial that you are tackling unconscious bias, promoting a culture of inclusion, and retaining diverse employees.

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…”

UNECCESARY INTERVIEW QUESTION #3: WHY SHOULD WE HIRE YOU?

Here are 3 reasons not to ask “Why should we hire you?” in a job interview:

1. When you ask for slogans, don’t be surprised when slogans are what you get. You are basically giving candidates an opportunity to give you the speech they’ve rehearsed as to why they are the perfect match for the job. However, their speech is generally more about selling and pitching capabilities and less about their true, skills-based fit for the position.

2. Poor candidate experience - this question puts candidate under pressure to prove or sell themselves while, in fact, the interview should be a two-way process that allows both sides to assess each other.

3. Limited and biased information - this question only allows the interviewee to focus on their own qualifications, but does not allow them to discuss their fit for the company or how their skills and experiences align with the needs of the role.

What should you ask instead:

1. What is your key value proposition as a candidate for this job? what do you believe is your competitive advantage that will make you successful in this position?

2. What are the main areas of fit/alignment between you as a professional and a person and the company/position? What are the possible misalignments?

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

INTERVIEW HORROR STORY

“Interviewer asked me what my worst trait was. I answered… Thinking of a quick response to unexpected questions. She snort-laughed. I got the job”.

*From the web.

INTERVIEW HORROR STORY

“Interviewer asked me what my worst trait was. I answered… Thinking of a quick response to unexpected questions. She snort-laughed. I got the job”.

*From the web.