Interviews are the closest you’ll ever get to knowing whether or not someone is a good hire for your company. If you’re still not sure about someone after an interview, then it’s time to look elsewhere. One-on-one interviews are great, but the pressure is entirely on you to prod and ask the right questions.
Panel interviews are often utilized because bringing people of different backgrounds together allows for the most diverse and informed questions. Also, your co-interviewers can pick up on details that you might have otherwise missed. Here are six tips for hosting the perfect panel interview.
1) Prep an Interview Guide
You can’t script an interview, but you can certainly tailor the pacing and overall flow. Interview guides are essential for keeping your meeting as concise as possible, so that you can ask the perfect questions in the perfect order. Asking too many open-ended questions in a row will put too much control in the interviewee’s hands, and you’ll quickly run out of time to ask the questions that really matter.
Start with short, simple questions that go deeper than small talk. After a few lobs, you can get into the more personal questions and try to learn more about the applicant’s behaviors and interests.
Feel free to plan several questions for each section of the interview, and it’s okay if you don’t get to all of them; keeping that organic feeling for your interview is key. Have your co-interviewers assist you in the creation of the interview guide, making sure that each interviewer knows which questions they’ll be asking. The company AlphaGraphics can help you out with your printing needs.
2) Make Sure the Candidate Is Really Worth Your Time
Don’t jump the gun too soon. A great resume may have grabbed your attention, but you need to be thorough and make sure the potential hire is being honest with you. For your peace of mind, you should pre-screen using employment credit checks from ShareAble for Hires. If there are any inconsistencies on the applicant’s resume, you can bring it up during the interview and watch them sweat.
3) Be Careful Telling the Applicant What to Expect
The purpose of an interview is to get a real—but controlled—conversation with this person that has you interested. For the sake of fidelity, don’t e-mail the candidate the exact questions you plan on asking. Having the interviewee to come in somewhat blind is the best way to see how they handle pressure and how they adapt to different types of people.
4) Make the Interviewee Feel Comfortable
You are controlling a lot of what’s going on in this interview, so have the candidate pick a suitable time for them in order to make them feel more at ease. Also, it can be helpful to inform them about the potential traffic they may encounter, or what to wear. It’s important to get those real answers from the interviewee, but they won’t have many answers to give if they feel completely out of place.
5) Go Beyond the Resume
Resumes, cover letter, and LinkedIn pages are all customized and edited to the point that they hardly contain any inkling as to who your candidate really is. Come up with some questions that help flesh out the interviewee’s personality. Talk about your workplace culture and ask how the interviewee thinks they’ll fit in. Again, this interview is one of your last chances to see if the candidate truly is a good fit for your company.
6) Practice with Your Co-Interviewers
If one of your panel members manages to get the candidate to talk about something really interesting, don’t interrupt right away. The interviewee is going to be able to talk with some people better than others, so be receptive, and only jump in when it feels like it’s time to move on to another topic. You and your co-interviewers need to set a common goal in terms of what you want to find out. Bringing too many agendas to the table will spoil your interview and you won’t learn much.
Interviewing is the push and pull between your company and a stranger, and while most of the control is in your court, it’s important to still recognize that the candidate is the one with the answers to your questions. Keeping these six tips in mind will bring the most out of your candidates by ensuring that they have the freedom to speak, but a structure to rely on.
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