In this chapter, I will teach you about the information gathering and confidence building tools you need to excel as an interviewer. You can prepare and practice these topics to perfection before you interview anyone. You will learn how to do the following:
- Determine the job specification
- Gather information from HR
- Manage the interview
- Keep the interview legal
- Prepare yourself for the interview
- Prepare the opening introductions
- Be your best in the interview—performance mode
- Prepare the candidate for interview
By the end of this chapter, you will have worked through the preparations you need to be confident and at ease when conducting an interview. Knowing what to do is not the same as being able to do it though! This chapter is the foundation for the interviewing skills we are developing in you. A solid foundation is essential before moving to the next stage. I want you to do the preparation, put in the work, and keep practicing until you are perfect in each of the fifteen topics in this chapter.
As a gray-haired ex-manager, I can tell you that my focus is always on performance, that of both myself and my team. A good interviewer will create a job opportunity that is a perfect match for the chosen candidate. I will try to pass on my experience of interviewing as clearly as possible, but most importantly, I want you to focus on your own performance as an interviewer. If you are focused and committed to improving and developing your skills, you will become a noticeably good interviewer—you will wow people with your interviewing skills!
If you're ready, let's make a start.
The first consideration is whether the job or jobs you are looking to fill are needed for:
- A new team duplicating an existing team
- An addition to an existing team
- A new function in an existing team
- A new team with a new function
- A demand fluctuation
A discussion with your manager is needed to find out what is required.
The simplest situation—duplicating an existing team—suggests the job and skills specifications, interview questions, and scoring methodology that Human Resources (HR) previously determined are still relevant and useable.
If you are looking to recruit an additional team member for a team that has an unchanged role to perform, you must be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the team, including yourself. The people in the team, and those coming for interview, are not Lego bricks. When you try to assemble them into a working team, you will discover different skill sets, which means the new recruits have to fill in the weaknesses as well as offer the basic skills.
This will require the score sheet to be reviewed in light of the emphasized need for certain skills; those skills may need a higher weighting factor. You will learn about the score sheets in Chapter 3, Conducting the Interview – Questioning and Scoring.
Sometimes you may be looking to expand the capability of an existing team and are looking for new skills. This can come about through innovation in the team's processes, a future need, or your manager's experience of how the present team operates.
This new capability may need new skills, and the HR information will need to be modified to suit this new requirement. Apart from understanding the existing team, you will need to incorporate the new skills requirement into the interview documentation in cooperation with HR.
Finally, a new team with a new function will need all the job and skills specifications, interview questions, and scoring methodology to be created anew.
You may also be recruiting to cover demand fluctuations leading to lower-than-acceptable service levels. An understanding of the demand and team capacity fluctuations is essential to recruit to sustain team performance in those situations.
Whatever is the reason for the recruitment, you can explore the issues through a discussion with your manager and then ensure that HR amends the documentation as needed.