Written by Sally-Ann King | 11th March 2025
If you’re looking to refine your interviewing techniques and improve your recruitment processes, here is some practical advice for interviewers from our recruitment specialist.
With artificial intelligence becoming increasingly accessible, it was only a matter of time before it found its way into the hiring process.
Tools like generative AI and chatbots have made it easier and faster for candidates to create CVs, write cover letters, and even respond to application questions. While these technologies have streamlined the process, they raise concerns about whether CVs and applications truly reflect a candidate’s skills, experience, and capabilities – especially when AI has been used to complete skills assessments.
Whether or not CVs and cover letters are becoming less reliable on their own, it’s important you have a well-structured interview process, incorporating different methods of assessing candidates’ skills and behaviours.
Key advice for interviewers
Preparation is key
Conducting an interview looks easier than it is, and that’s why managers don’t always prepare as well as they should.
Before the interview, take time to fully understand the job description and the competencies needed for the role. This will help you focus on what’s truly important and make sure you’re asking the right questions to gauge whether a candidate has the skills and experience required. It’s easy to overlook key details, especially if you’re recruiting for multiple roles and meeting lots of candidates, but taking a moment to review the essentials ensures you’re not missing anything vital.
You should also plan a structured approach to the interview. This helps to keep you on track, ensuring you cover all the necessary areas and give every candidate a fair shot. By using the same structure for each candidate, you’re better able to make consistent, objective comparisons, which can ultimately lead to better decision-making.
Effective questioning techniques
The questions you ask in an interview can make or break your assessment of a candidate. Our advice for interviewers is that open-ended questions are the best way to get the most insight into a candidate’s abilities, work ethic, and personality. They give candidates the opportunity to showcase their skills and experiences, helping you understand not just what they can do, but how they approach challenges.
For example, rather than asking a simple “Do you work well in teams?” ask, “Can you tell me about a time when you worked as part of a team to achieve a goal?” This encourages the candidate to share actual examples and allows you to assess their experience in real-world situations.
It’s also essential to assess hard and soft skills. While hard are obviously important, soft skills, such as communication, teamwork and resilience, are equally crucial. Questions like, “How would your previous manager describe you?” or “What motivates you in your role?” can give you a good idea of how the candidate will fit into your team and work culture. Also ask them about their hobbies and what makes them happy – showing an interest in getting to know them will not only help them feel more relaxed, it will help their personality to shine through.
Steer clear of generic questions like “What do you know about our company?” Anyone can do the research about your company – this doesn’t tell you much about the candidate’s suitability for the role. Instead, try to dig deeper into what drives the candidate and how their values align with your company’s values.
Consistency in the questions you ask each candidate is equally important. By asking the same questions across the board, you ensure that you’re conducting a fair interview and that every candidate is evaluated based on the same criteria.
Create a positive candidate experience
An interview is more than just your assessment of the candidate, it’s also an opportunity to showcase your company and create a positive impression. After all, the best candidates have plenty of choices, and if your interview process feels rushed or impersonal, they may decide to go elsewhere.
Our advice for interviewers is that from the moment you invite a candidate to interview, the experience should be professional, welcoming, and respectful. Give candidates ample time to prepare, but don’t leave it too long between scheduling and the interview, or you risk losing them to another opportunity. Providing clear instructions about dress code, parking, and what to expect on the day will help ease nerves and make the candidate feel more comfortable.
Before the interview begins, take a moment to explain the structure of the process, including the types of questions you’ll be asking. Candidates may have questions at the start as well as at the end, so be sure to provide opportunities for them to ask questions both before and after the interview.
Lastly, always manage expectations regarding when candidates will hear back from you and stick to it. If you tell a candidate they’ll receive feedback by a certain date, be sure to follow through.
Consistency in evaluation
Evaluating candidates can be tricky if you don’t have a structured approach. It’s easy to fall into the trap of relying on your first impression, but this could be bias. A structured evaluation helps ensure that you’re making decisions based on facts rather than a gut feeling!
Developing a scoring system can help you assess candidates based on predefined criteria, ensuring consistency across the board. This could be as simple as rating each candidate on a scale of 1 to 5 across different competencies or creating a more detailed list to evaluate specific aspects of the role. Regardless of the method you choose, consistency is key.
It’s also important to give feedback to candidates, even if they aren’t selected for the role. Providing constructive feedback can help them improve, and it reflects well on your company. Just be sure not to provide feedback immediately after the interview, it’s often better to take some time to reflect.
Beyond the CV: using psychometric testing
With AI playing a bigger role in recruitment, it’s now easier than ever for candidates to tweak or even fabricate parts of their CVs. That’s where psychometric testing comes in. It’s a great way to dig deeper into a candidate’s personality, skills, abilities, and overall fit for the role.
Psychometric assessments, like Quest psychometric profiling, can help identify traits that are difficult to assess in an interview. These tests provide data on a candidate’s working style, decision-making abilities, and how they might perform in different situations. They can also help identify if they are a cultural fit for your business, which is often just as important as hard skills when it comes to success in a role.
Incorporating psychometric testing into your recruitment process can remove some of the guesswork, reduce bias, and ensure you’re making the right decisions. However, our advice to interviewers is remember to never base any hiring decisions on personality profiles alone. They work best when they are used to help build the bigger picture and not push you to hire or not to hire someone based purely on the result.
Common interview mistakes to avoid
While interviews are a great opportunity to assess candidates, they also come with their own set of challenges. One common mistake is talking too much and not giving the candidate enough room to speak. It’s tempting to elaborate on your company or explain your own experiences, but remember, the interview is about the candidate. Allow them to share their experiences and give thoughtful responses.
Interviews without a clear plan can become disjointed, leading to missed opportunities to assess important areas. Stay organised and ensure you have a consistent approach for every interview.
Unconscious bias is another potential pitfall. We can be influenced by factors such as social stereotypes, our background and our personal experiences – and make decisions based on these without “knowing” we are doing so.
Choosing the criteria you want your new hires to meet before the screening process begins can help reduce bias. For example, you might determine the technical experience, work history, educational background, and skill sets needed to meet the requirements of the job, which can help you to narrow down candidates. This can help avoid bias, as it makes it less likely that you will base decisions on someone’s suitability for a role on protected characteristics, or ones outside of the list you selected.
Recruitment training and support
If you’re looking to improve your recruitment process, Reality HR is here to help. We offer comprehensive recruitment training designed to help businesses streamline their hiring process. Our training covers everything from creating interviewing techniques to onboarding, ensuring your team is well-equipped to make informed, fair decisions.
We also offer recruitment reviews to assess the effectiveness of your current process and provide tailored advice on how to refine your approach. This includes reviewing job descriptions, selection criteria, timelines and writing interview questions, to ensure your hiring strategy is as efficient and effective as possible.
Our Recruitment and Retention Guide, dives into key topics such as attracting and retaining candidates beyond salary, equality and diversity in recruitment, and dealing with the increasing issue of “ghosting” in recruitment. Plus, the guide explores how using tools like psychometric profiling (such as Quest) can support your hiring decisions.
If the idea of managing recruitment on your own feels overwhelming, we offer outsourced recruitment support. Whether you need help developing job specifications, conducting interviews, or onboarding new hires, our team can step in and support you at every stage of the hiring process, taking on all of it or as much as you need.
We’re here to help you hire the right talent, refine your recruitment process, and ultimately build a stronger, more successful team.
If you have any questions or would like to learn more about our recruitment support, please get in touch with our team at [email protected]