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How To Interview:

Interviewing Tips For Employers

Special Report From: EasySmallBusinessHR.com

One of the most popular searches on Google is the phrase, “How to

interview” with over 550,000 monthly searches!

Managers and job applicants alike are looking for tips on how to

interview better.

If you are a hiring manager with a job opening, the interview

process is a responsibility that you don’t want to leave to chance.

You need to find the right person for your job without second

guessing your decision.

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Here are three suggestions that will help you to prepare for the

interview:

Interview Tip # 1: Take the time to prepare for your job

applicant interview.

It’s not enough to just review a résumé or job application and ask

questions on the fly. You need to understand the core function of

the job that you are hiring for.

It's critical that you are clear on the type and level of experience as

well as the depth of experience that your candidate will need to

have in order to ask the best interview questions and get the

answers that will help you to make better hiring decisions.

You’re literally flying blind when you don’t take the time to give

some thought to what the skills and experience your job applicant

will need in order to be successful in the job.

Interview Tip # 2: Create a job description in advance of your

interview.

Yes, you are the supervisor, and it stands to reason that you know

everything that there is to know about the job that you are hiring

for. Yet, it's easy to hire someone whom you thought was an

exceptional candidate, only to learn that the job applicant did not

possess a particular skill set, or that they don't have the depth of

experience that you really needed for your position.

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Although it may not seem so, writing a job description is a simple

exercise. You can start by making a laundry list of tasks that you’d

like for your employee to be able to complete in order to

accomplish your business goals. Whittle down your list even

further by focusing on the work that your new employee will

perform on a daily or weekly basis.

Your final job description should include just the core tasks that

your employee will be responsible for. Everything else will fall

under “related duties as required". Use your completed job

description to develop your interview questions.

Interview Tip # 3: Develop your interview questions prior to

meeting with your job candidate.

You can’t make an accurate determination of whether your job

applicant really has the skills and experience needed for your job if

you don’t ask the right questions.

Use your job description as the blueprint for developing your

interview questions as opposed to relying only on those questions

that may occur to you during your interview.

Your interview questions should be laser focused so that you can

learn from your applicant if they have the skills that are needed to

accomplish your goals for the position.

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Interview Tip #4: Ask the right interview questions.

Don’t ask questions that give the job candidate an opportunity to

respond by saying either "yes" or "no".

Your interview questions should guide your job applicant in a way

that will require that he or she provide clear examples that

demonstrate an understanding of a particular task, or how they

have been able to apply their experience in a way that has helped

them to be successful in their current or past positions.

Ask your candidate to give you an example from their current or

past jobs that support their ability to manage employees, complete

projects within deadline, or effectively and courteously interact

with customers for example. This is called behavioral

interviewing.

Interview Tip #5: Check supervisor references.

In our haste to move the hiring process along, it's sometimes easier

to check whatever references are available, or to skip the reference

process altogether. Don’t.

Always, always, check references; preferably supervisor

references. Accepting a reference list that only consists of friends

or colleagues can be a recipe for problems down the line because

you weren't able to identify an employee’s strengths and areas for

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improvement; or whether there were previous performance issues

that you should be aware of.

You need to understand from the supervisor's perspective, your

applicant’s work history as it relates to their skills, their

experience, and their level of productivity.

You'll want to get the supervisor's perspective on an applicant’s

interpersonal skills and other factors that may be important to you

in a candidate.

It’s fine to use references from colleagues but only to supplement

supervisor references. I would go as far as to say that references

from friends should not be considered. After all, what would a true

friend say about their friend who is trying to get a job?

Interview Tip #6: Follow up with all of the applicants that you

have interviewed.

You’re busy; that’s understood. It’s hard to follow up with every

candidate that applies for your job that you did not interview.

Inform all potential applicants before they have applied through

your website that you will only be contacting those candidates that

meet the job experience described in your job posting.

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Be sure to thank all candidates on your website who have taken the

time to consider your job openings.

Follow up with all candidates who you have spoken to by phone,

email and especially in person. To not follow up with the

candidates that took the time to meet with you is a no- no.

Remember that the same candidate that you ignore now may be the

very candidate that you’ll want to hire for your next job opening.

A great reference guide for hiring managers is the book:

Recruiting, Interviewing, Selecting & Orienting New

Employees

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