The interview plan

Try planning your interview around the following:

• Review the job and candidate specification and the candidate’s CV.
• Make sure you note any points you are not sure about in their details – job titles you are not familiar with, points they have made that you do not understand.
• Decide what questions to ask to cover these.
• Highlight any gaps in their work history to ensure you learn the reasons behind these.
• Make a note of any shortfalls in the CV, i.e. skills that you need to have but are not obvious from the candidate’s details.
• Decide what questions to ask to cover these areas.
• Put together a series of other relevant questions to ensure that you have enough information to compare the candidates and decide which to take to the next stage.
• Base these questions on the needs that you have identified in the candidate specification.
• Review your questions to ensure they are not discriminatory in any way.

It is illegal to ask any questions that may be discriminatory. Grounds of discrimination include sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief and age: see Chapter 16, Discrimination.

Take a copy of the CV so that you can highlight points that need further clarification, leaving a clean one for anyone else involved in the next stage of the selection process.

Interview timing

Once you have planned your questions, think about the timings for your interview schedule. Decide how long you are going to allocate for each interview by calculating how much time is needed for each section.

• How long do you need to obtain the right level of information from the candidate for this stage of the recruitment process?
• The interview is a two-way process as you are not the only one making a decision, so allow time to give the interviewee enough information about the company and the job to enable them to make an informed choice.
• Allow time for the candidate’s questions.
• Include a break between interviews to write up your notes.

If you happen to have shortlisted more than one candidate from the same company, try to avoid having their interviews running consecutively so that you can maintain confidentiality.

Timing an interview can be difficult, especially for the inexperienced. You need to control the interview so that you keep to your schedule. If you have an overly chatty candidate who wants to give you more information than you need, try using more ‘closed’ questions than you would normally. This will help you to interrupt their flow but will make sure that you get the facts that you need. (‘Closed’ questions are explained later in this chapter.) You can also try using body language such as folding your arms which will indicate that you are closed to further conversation. At the end of the interview these talkative candidates will usually want the last word and you may actually have to stand up and show them the door!

The opposite is the quiet candidate. They can also be helped along by body language. Try leaning back in your chair with your arms open or at your side to indicate that you are relaxed. When they do start to open up, look interested, lean forward again as if you are deeply engrossed in what they are saying, nod to acknowledge that you understand.

Keep a close eye on time as it is very easy to run over if you have a good candidate or a very chatty one. Sit so that you can easily see a clock – it’s less obvious than looking at your watch.

Starting your interview

Interviews are often conducted under pressure when time is short and it is easy to miss some basic details, so don’t forget the following:

• Make sure the candidates know how to get to the interview. This may sound obvious, but you go to your building every day. They don’t!
• Make sure they know where to report to and who to ask for.
• To get the best from your applicant make them as comfortable and as much at ease as possible; this is an interview, not an interrogation. Simple things like making sure they are not sitting in direct sunlight or next to a noisy office will make a difference.
• Welcome the interviewee to the company and thank them for coming to see you.
• Introduce yourself and give your job title, and if it is not obvious explain what you do and whether the job you are recruiting for will report to you.
• Explain the recruitment process – second interview, tests, etc., with a timeline.
• Explain what will happen today and the timeline on feedback, i.e. ‘Today I want to find out more about you and tell you about our company. We have shortlisted ten people, and you are the third and we hope to have decided on second interviews by early next week.’
• Give them a brief introduction to the company and the role you are recruiting for (you can go into more detail at the end of the interview if appropriate).
• Take notes. If you do not interview regularly you will not remember the interviewee unless you take notes.

Use the candidate’s name frequently during your meeting to help build up rapport and personalise the interview.

Aim of the interviews

The aim of the first interview is to get an overall impression of the candidate and have enough information to compare them to others, but you don’t need to cover every point in this first meeting. Concentrate on their experience, including any gaps on their CV, reasons for leaving and any points you need more information on.

You must also give the candidate some information on your company and the job, ideally including a copy of the job and candidate specification: this may have been sent to them prior to interview. Answer any questions they have, and ‘sell’ them the role. It’s their decision too!

Unless you are recruiting a junior level role you will need to conduct a second and, possibly, further interviews and these can concentrate on more in-depth questions to discover if the candidate has the skills you need.

However, there is a danger that this and subsequent meetings can become a repeat of the first one with many of the same questions being asked, so you need to decide on your reasons for the next interview and what you want to gain out of it.

As we saw in Chapter 4, Your Recruitment and Selection Process, the reasons for further interviews will include some or all of the following:

• You need to ask more in-depth questions that you did not cover in the first interview. The questions at second interview should be planned to match the skills you have identified on your candidate or person specification and cover areas that you did not cover in the first meeting.
• The candidates need to meet other people in your organisation. If other people are now involved or you are the line manager now stepping into the process, make sure everyone understands what was covered at first interview. You may want the candidate to re-cap but you do not need to go into detail about their work again.
• There is a practical task or some form of testing for them to complete.
• The candidates, even junior ones, need to have a sense of achievement if you offer them the job.
• You simply cannot decide between two or more candidates. Plan a second interview that will give you some more information to help you decide.

The overall aim of the interviews is to find the right candidate, so review each interview stage to make sure you are achieving this.

How to ask the right type of questions

Every question you ask at interview should have a purpose and should be targeted at getting specific information.

There are two types of question which can both be used to good effect. The main one you want to use will be ‘open’ questions that generate information, and the others are ‘closed’ questions that can be used to clarify a point.

Closed questions starting with ‘Did...’, ‘Do...’, ‘Is...’, ‘Was...’, etc. will generate ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answers. These should be avoided when you are gathering information, as you want to generate more detailed answers. A short answer to a closed question can leave you struggling to think what to ask next. So you will always start your questioning with open type questions.

However, closed questions can be used effectively to clarify points, especially if you are trying to get a conclusion to a question.

Why did you leave your last company? (Open question to generate information.)

I wasn’t really getting on.

Why was that? (Open question to draw more information.)

I don’t really know.

Did something specific happen to make you leave? (Closed question to clarify the above.)

I had an argument with my boss and decided it was better to leave.

Did you leave of your own accord? (Closed question to get final closure on the point.)

During the interview use open questions, except in situations like the one above, where you cannot be given one-word or very short answers.

Open questions starting with ‘Who...’, ‘What...’, ‘Where...’, ‘When...’, ‘How...’ will draw more detailed information from your interviewee and they will also give you time to think about your next question.

They should still be targeted to get the information you want and not used as general openings.

Never use very general open questions like ‘Tell me about yourself?’ This will confuse an already nervous candidate who will not know where to start and will not know what information you want from them.

Another interview favourite is ‘Talk me through your CV.’ That may not turn out to be too onerous if you are interviewing a younger candidate but you are leaving yourself open to them starting at the beginning of their career or even their life!

Do not take answers at face value. Check their answers by asking them to expand on their answer and give examples. This is usually known as a competence-based interview and can be used for all levels of applicants.

Asking for examples can also help you to understand a comment that the candidate makes that may relate directly to their company and doesn’t make sense taken out of context. Questions can include openings such as ‘Give me an example’, ‘Describe a situation’, ‘How did you deal with’, and so on.

As well as asking for their examples, try to include scenarios that the candidates may face in your organisation and ask how they would respond.

Avoiding obvious questions

When you start to probe into skills you will need to ask more in-depth questions but try to avoid the obvious interview questions such as ‘What do you think are your strengths and weaknesses?’ Candidates will have rehearsed answers for such questions and will devise answers they think you want to hear. If you want to identify these areas but want a less contrived answer, try asking these questions:

What part of your job do you enjoy most?

What are you best at?

What are you not so good at?

How can that be improved?

• Identify what the aim of the interview is.
• Put together your interview plan.
• Use mainly open questions.
• Avoid the obvious questions that can have rehearsed answers.
• Ask for examples to back up their answers, or set scenarios for them to comment on.
• Make sure you give the candidate enough information to make their decision.