How to conduct a job interview

If the job interview is a very important moment for candidates, it is also and especially important for recruiters, who have the opportunity on that occasion to understand whether they have in front of them the “right” person to hire. Here is everything a recruiter needs to know to conduct a job interview in the best possible way.

SUMMARY

• What is a job interview and its role in the selection process
• How to structure the ideal selection interview
• Prepare the right questions
• Types of interviews
• The use of technology to support interviews
• How to optimise job interview with Inrecruiting

Although the world of work is constantly changing, the job interview remains a key point in the recruitment process. Whether it is conducted live or remotely, it is an appointment that recruiters cannot do without in order to understand who is in front of them and whether they are the right person for the job position.

Let’s see what the job interview consists of, how it can best be conducted, how it should be structured and how technology can support it. But first let’s understand what is meant by a job interview.

What is a job interview and its role in the selection process

In the recruitment process, the job interview is a decisive moment in the final choice of the person who, after applying for an ad and going through the subsequent stages of the selection process, will be placed within a company.

 This choice is crucial because, as we know, the interview comes after a series of investments that the company has made such as in writing the ad, posting it on certain platforms, using recruiting software, evaluating the many CVs received, and so on. Investments in terms of money, certainly, but also in terms of time that should ensure that the final goal is achieved.

Hiring the wrong person – discovered right away or after months – has no small consequences because it means repeating the whole process, but it can also risk jeopardizing team stability and have no small impact on productivity.

The job interview for a recruiter is a valuable time to find out more details than what a candidate may have entered on the CV, but also to get to know the person better.

From the phone interview to the face-to-face interview, it becomes important to learn and implement the most appropriate strategies, and to do so, it might be beneficial to know how to schedule selection interviews and what questions every recruiter should ask in order to have a perfect interview. Let’s look at them together.

How to structure the ideal selection interview

To manage the best interviews and obtain the most efficient results, as a first step, it’s important to define the competencies and skills that are fundamental for the role, also the questions that will help to immediately exclude unsuitable candidates.

It can be useful to prepare a selection sheet and to figure out a grading system for each answer. With ATS software such as Inrecruiting you can add interview notes to share with the whole recruitment team in the company, a tool that streamlines the management of this moment in the recruiting process

Define the moments of the interview

From the company mission to the definition of the job description, from company benefits to selection strategies, it can be useful to draw up a checklist to define the standard steps (especially if you are a junior recruiter), to be used and repeated for each type of interview, for example:

1. candidate welcome: be sure to welcome the candidate to make them feel at ease;
2. introduce the team: by introducing the recruitment team (who will be conducting the interview and possible future interviews) it will help the candidate to understand who is following the recruitment process;
3. candidate motivation: during the interview it is useful to understand the candidate’s reasons for being interested in this specific role, also to understand their personal motivations in general and the factors that are stimulating for them in their work. This can include questions about how the candidate has managed particular situations in their previous roles;
4. details of the role: it is essential that the candidate understands the tasks and objectives included in the role, and to answer any questions or doubts that they might have;
5. company mission and history of the company: it is important to explore why the person would (or should) want to work in the company. Revealing the company values and philosophy can be very relevant, and often a decisive factor for the candidate’s final decision;
6. the workplace: “Where will I work?” “Who will I work with?” These are often the first questions that a candidate has when they are considering a new role. A really efficient recruitment process would include a ‘tour’ of the workplace, introducing the team and the people that make up the ‘daily life’ of the workplace.

Choosing the venue for the interview

The management of the job interview cannot be separated, we know, from the choice of venue. If in-person, a meeting room that is large, clean, and bright, but which is also private and acoustically isolated, helps to make the candidate feel comfortable.
This last point also applies to a remote interview. It is not enough to have headphones and a microphone because anything can be distracting: it is important to pay attention to the person on the other side of the screen and to make them feel that, at that moment, the focus is on them alone.

Organizing the interview schedule

When will the meetings with the selected candidates be held? Which and how many members of the HR team will need to be involved? How will they be involved, in what capacity?
When organizing and setting up a job interview, in addition to choosing the room, it is essential to define a calendar of interviews, roles and tasks.

Scheduling agendas, giving adequate notice and sending a confirmation email to candidates, and planning reminders for all company members who will be involved are necessary steps to conduct the ideal job interview

It’s also necessary to decide who will be involved, between members of the HR team. HR Manager and company executives (depending also on the type of interview being planned).

For this, the use of an ATS software such as Inrecruiting can help to optimise time management by planning and programming the entire selection process. Among the many functions of the Calendar module, it is possible to share one’s agenda with that of colleagues so that the various availabilities of people to be involved can be checked immediately and time wasted in rescheduling interviews can be avoided. An extremely beneficial aspect for recruiters and candidates.

Prepare the right questions

To conduct a successful selection interview, it is important to define what questions to ask candidates, identify what their best skills are, and analyze in depth the motivations for wanting to get the job.

It is necessary to analyze in detail the candidates’ skills and it becomes essential to know how to effectively expose the advantages and opportunities offered by your company, the goals set and all the details related to the position for which the person will potentially be chosen.

This is why it is important to have an idea of the questions to ask so that they not only cover hard skills – which will be tested most effectively during the technical interview – but also explore other aspects (behavioral, motivational, etc.).

Artificial intelligence is moving in this direction in fact, as we will see later in the case of Inda, suggests to recruiters the questions to ask during the job interview.

However, we can identify 3 types of questions that can be asked during an interview:

• personal/exploratory questions
• role questions
• behavioral questions

Personal/exploratory questions

They can be for example: “What has been the most challenging challenge you have faced in your career?” or the classic ”What are your strengths or weaknesses?” Also, “What is the success you are most satisfied with in your career?”

Role questions

Questions about the role can extend from “What do you know about our company?” to “Why did you choose to apply for this particular role?” precisely to understand the candidate’s affinity for the job he or she is to go to and its crucialness to the company.

Behavioral questions

As for behavioral questions, to find out if the person is a good fit for the possible new job, one person could ask if he or she has ever had difficulty dealing with a manager or with whom he or she would prefer to work. Or how he or she would deal with a colleague who does not meet a job deadline.

One could also ask what he or she is not particularly competent at. This type of question on the one hand highlights the readiness of the person in front of you to answer, and on the other hand it highlights his or her ability to self-assess, but without conditioning the outcome of the selection process. If, for example, a person says, “I’m not able to use Excel at a pro level,” and perhaps in his or her role it is required to know how to use it (though not in an advanced way), an ad hoc course can be considered. That way, you can also see if the person is willing to learn or continue training.

These are examples, but it is good to prepare applications based both on the candidates’ experience and on the type of person they would like to have in the company and who is required on the team.

This discussion introduces another aspect of the selection interview: the difference between structured and unstructured interviews.

Types of interviews

Job interviews can be divided into three main categories: structured, unstructured, and semi-structured. Each type has specific characteristics that influence the selection process and the effectiveness of candidate assessment. Let’s see what they are.

Structured interviews

These types of interviews are structured meetings where the candidates are subjected to a series of standard questions, which the recruiters draw up in advance with a job interview evaluation grid that is identical for all candidates.
This type of interview ensures coherence and allows for comparable results in a short period of time, facilitating large-scale hiring. At the same time, it leaves little room for “creativity” and the initiative of the staff recruiter. 

Unstructured interviews

Unstructured interviews are when the recruiters don’t have structured questions at hand, but instead base the interview on impressions and personal evaluation. They are also generally considered less effective and, unlike structured interviews, have less legal relevance. 

Semi-structured interviews

Semi-structured interviews share aspects from the two previous types of interviews. Recruiters base the selection on both standardised questions and personal evaluation, thus balancing methodological rigor and flexibility.

The use of technology to support interviews

Technological innovation has profoundly transformed the world of recruiting, making selection processes faster, more efficient, and more accurate. The use of advanced software and Artificial Intelligence has enabled recruiters to automate many repetitive tasks, such as CV screening, application management and interview scheduling.

In addition, digital platforms offer tools to conduct video interviews, analyze candidates’ skills, and improve the overall recruiting experience. With these technologies, it is possible to reduce the time it takes to hire new talent, increase accuracy in assessment, and ensure a fairer and more objective selection.

How to optimise job interview with Inrecruiting

Inrecruiting is an ATS software designed to optimize the entire recruitment process and, therefore, to provide recruiters with effective tools that also improve the efficiency and quality of job intervew management. Here some of the features available:

• set up custom templates for interview invitations
• organize interviews and share the agenda with colleagues involved in appointments, making it easier for both recruiters and candidates to schedule meetings;
• synchronize the work calendar with the personal calendar in real time to immediately check availability;
• delegate to candidates the choice of the date on which to conduct the job interview through an automatic scheduler system or propose a series of free slots from which candidates can choose;
• ability to manage interview notes, allowing recruiters to compare impressions of candidates with each other, share feedback with the selection team, and make more informed decisions;
• manage validated tests within the platform for more in-depth assessment of candidates’ skills;
• send automatic feedback to candidates simply by changing the candidate’s status.

Thus, thanks to these technologies, it is possible to reduce the time it takes to hire a new person, increase the accuracy of assessment, and try to ensure a fairer and more objective selection.

Artificial Intelligence for HR 

A key element of Inrecruiting is the integration of Inda, a proprietary Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology developed specifically for HR.
Inda automates repetitive and time-consuming tasks, such as CV screening and candidate search, allowing recruiters to focus on more strategic aspects of the selection process.

With Generative AI, as anticipated, Inda is able to suggest role-specific interview questions, helping recruiters conduct more targeted and effective interviews. Such integration not only speeds up the recruiting process, but also ensures that the most suitable candidates are identified and evaluated fairly and efficiently.

If, then, the choice between structured, unstructured and semi-structured interviews depends on the company’s objectives and the type of role to be filled, it is clear that technology can do so much to improve the effectiveness of selection and ensure the placement of candidates best suited to the organization.

If you would like to learn more about Inrecruiting’s features for optimized job interview management, request a specialized consultation.