• Scope: Acquiring the best talent relies heavily on an effective interviewing process, which involves the strategic preparation of stakeholders, including interviewers. Asking the most effective questions will draw out the most appropriate information to best assess the candidate. Evaluating the interview process and recording best practices will inspire continuous interviewing improvement within the organization.
• Challenge: The majority of organizations do not have a solid interviewing process in place, and most interviewers are not practiced at interviewing. This results in many poor hiring decisions, costing the organization in many ways. Upsizing is on the horizon, the competition for good talent is escalating, and distinguishing between a good interviewee and a good candidate fit for a position is becoming more difficult.
• Pain/Risk: Although properly preparing for and conducting an interview requires additional time on the part of HR, the hiring manager, and all interviewers involved, the long-term benefits of an effective interview process positively affect the organization’s bottom line and company morale.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

• Most interviewers are not as good as they think they are, resulting in many poor hiring decisions. A poor hire can cost an organization up to 15 times the position’s annual salary, as well as hurt employee morale.
• The Human Resources department needs to take responsibility for an effective interview process, but the business needs to take responsibility for developing its new hire needs, and assessing the candidates using the best questions and the most effective interview types and techniques.
• All individuals with a stake in the interview process need to invest sufficient time to help define the ideal candidate, understand their roles and decision rights in the process, and prepare individually to interview effectively.
• There are hundreds of different interview types, techniques, and tools for an organization to use, but the most practiced and most effective is behavioral interviewing.
• There is no right interview type and technique. Each hiring scenario needs to be evaluated to pick the appropriate type and technique that should be practiced, and the right questions that should be asked.

Impact and Result

• Gain insight into and understand the need for a strong interview process.
• Strategize and plan your organization’s interview process, including how to make up an ideal candidate profile, who should be involved in the process, and how to effectively match interview types, techniques, and questions to assess the ideal candidate attributes.
• Understand various hiring scenarios, and how an interview process may be modified to reflect your organization’s scenario.
• Learn about the most common interview types and techniques, when they are appropriate to use, and best practices around using them effectively.
• Evaluate your interview process and yourself as an interviewer to better inform future candidate interviewing strategy.