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.

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…”

INTERVIEW HORROR STORY

“Had an interviewer ask me ‘how do you deal with women?’ “I was obviously very confused, so I asked ‘what do you mean by how do I DEAL with women?’ And they responded with ‘it’s a pretty straightforward question — how do you deal with women?’… long story short, I didn’t get into that school”

*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.

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

“Had an interviewer ask me ‘how do you deal with women?’ “I was obviously very confused, so I asked ‘what do you mean by how do I DEAL with women?’ And they responded with ‘it’s a pretty straightforward question — how do you deal with women?’… long story short, I didn’t get into that school”

*From the web

 

UNECCESARY INTERVIEW QUESTION #1: WHY DO YOU WANT TO WORK FOR US?

There is a good chance the candidate doesn't aspire to work specifically for you, rather you were one of the company’s they applied to in their search.

When you ask this question you are asking for a socially desirable answer or, in other words, you are waiting for the candidate to tell you what you want to hear. All you will learn from this question is if the candidate researched your company in advance — nothing about their motivation.

If you want to understand a candidate’s motivation you can ask questions like:

What other positions have you applied to?
Which components of your current or previous job did you like and dislike?
What are the job’s key components you are attracted to? which ones are you concerned about?
If you had a chance to earn more and do less of (liked job component) or earn less but do more of (liked job component) - what would you choose?

Image Source: Bored Panda

#informedecisions #hiring #interviews #recruitment #skillsbasedhiring #interviewbestpractices

INTERVIEW HORROR STORY: PENGUINS AND SOMBREROS

The interviewer asked me: “If a penguin wearing a sombrero were to show up here now, what would he say?”
(Our guess: “Fire this interviewer!”)

#informedecisions #interviewhorrorstories #recruitment #skillsbasedhiring #interviews