Conducting a structured interview is essential, and it is a challenging task for many recruiters. A flawed interviewing process directly results in poor hires.

So, how to streamline your interview process? Usually, interviews are based on the skills and abilities of the candidates. The first impression of the candidate will determine the outcome of the interview.

It doesn’t matter how accurate your hiring process is – if it isn’t structured, you’re going to see a wide variance in the outcomes.

In structured interviews, the interviewer asks a particular set of planned questions. These are pre-determined questions that are prepared before an interview, which means that all candidates are asked the same questions in the same order.

Structured remote interviews help with a lot of things, such as:

• It helps you understand the job profile
• It helps interviewers prepare better, which results in better interview experiences for both the interviewer and the candidate
• It helps reduce biases. Often, bias occurs without you knowing about it

Most importantly, it results in a better understanding of the candidate at each step.

Write A Detailed Job Description

A job description is what a candidate will interact with first. You need to provide a detailed job description. You must include information like required skills and certifications, the soft skills you are looking for, and the role and responsibility of a candidate.

A job description is a brief detail about your company and its work culture. You must include all the necessary details about your company’s work environment and what benefits your company offers to a candidate.

Create A Scale To Rate The Answers To Every Question

Structured interviews are used with a precise rating system for evaluating candidates. It would be beneficial to use standardized scoring to structure the interview accurately.

Structured interviews and scoring improve candidate evaluation. If you want to enhance your hiring process, consider using structured interviews and scoring.

Dip Into The Human Element

When it comes to shared experiences and stating company culture, virtual interviews have some shortcomings compared to being in person. Using the right tools and properly structuring the interview process will help in re-creating those in-person details virtually.

Making such changes will enhance the candidate experience, which they may get in face-to-face interviews.

Make The Tools Work For You

A quick technical check before initiating the interview is important. Make sure your tech requirements are all set up. When it comes to remote interviews, you need to have licenses for everything you need – and maybe, multiple licenses.

It’s also important to let the candidate practice the tools, especially if they haven’t used them before. And what about in-person presentations? You need to create that in-person feel virtually.

As a recruiter, a virtual interview is a new thing, and you are more likely to make mistakes. Here we will discuss 5 common mistakes which will help you start analyzing your qualitative research data as soon as possible. Let’s dive in.

Not Doing Pre-Research

An interview is a two-way communication between the employer and employee. Before interviewing, it is important to do your homework to encourage a candidate to be open and honest. You must only ask the questions to a candidate that are related to the job profile and company’s requirements.

Inconsistency Between Candidates

Without having a reliable interview structure, it’s straightforward to be inconsistent with your strategy between different candidates.

So, you need to be consistent in your process, which is a key to a solid interview process and your ability to differentiate candidates from one another.

How to prevent inconsistency?

• Firstly, put a scoring system in place. Assess the candidate’s responses against your expectations.
• Secondly, make sure the same person interviews every candidate. Many companies have different teams and people interviewing candidates at their first stage interview.
• Lastly, try and schedule your interviews on the same day if you can. It’s recommended to schedule 4 or less on the same day to avoid ‘Interview Fatigue.’

Not Preparing Interview Questions In Advance

Great interviewers always prepare the questions to ask a candidate before an interview day. Reviewing the position requirements and creating questions from the list is the best way to prepare. Because you are asking the same questions, you can compare candidates with each other easily.

Furthermore, you should note all the candidates’ answers so that you don’t miss out on any important facts about their educational qualifications and skills.

Not Defining The Job Clearly

Most employers initiate their recruiting process without properly defining the job duties and requirements needed to succeed in the job. This can result in hiring the wrong person. As we have mentioned above, it is crucial to write a clear job description that includes required technical skills, soft skills, professional qualifications, etc.

A well-written document will help you promote structured interview questions that assess an applicant’s suitability for the job.

Rushing To Conclusions

Most recruiters hire candidates based on their soft skills. Research states that half of the employers report they need only five minutes To determine whether a candidate is a right fit for your company or not. But it is not related to any future job performance of the candidate. Hiring a candidate without proper assessment can lead to a bad hiring decision.

You don’t get any bonus points for hiring a candidate quickly.

So, try to wait until the end of the interview to express your initial judgment.

When looking to hire the right talent for your organization, structured interviews will help you find the right person for a particular role, reduce bias, and overcome the legal risk to your organization.

Hence, it’s always a great idea to use a structured interview to mitigate the risk of a bad hire. Always remember that selection should include different types of assessments.

Consider the interview at the last stage, including pre-employment assessments such as technical skills tests, online portfolios, and other methods to craft the hiring process accurately.