Staff Management Toolkit

Before the Interview

 

• Determine the essential functions of the job and establish specific requirements. These functions can be categorized into technical functions and behavioral functions.

• Determine your priorities. It can be helpful to separate the job requirements into a list of “critical” functions, which will allow you to automatically eliminate some candidates and “desirable” functions, which will help you narrow down the remaining candidates.

• Communicate with the HR recruiter. It is important that this person has a clear understanding of what you are looking for in a candidate, as they will likely be the first person to view the applications.

• Create a selection committee. Choose a variety of people who have a strong knowledge of what the position entails and will work closely with the selected candidate. Ensure that all committee members understand what is expected of them and what questions are appropriate to ask.

• Develop a plan for the interviews and a list of questions to ask. These should be a mix of behavioral questions, open-ended questions, and probing questions.

• Select a relaxed setting for the interview. The space should be quiet and free of possible interruptions. 

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During the Interview

• Follow the same sequence for each candidate. It is important to allow each candidate the same amount of time to answer each question and to ask the same questions of every candidate.

• Let the candidate do most of the talking. Ideally, they will be doing 80-85% of the talking and you will spend that time listening closely to the answers and preparing to probe deeper.

• Avoid inappropriate or illegal questions. Do not ask about religion, gender, race, marital status, orientation, etc.

• When closing the interview, take time to answer any questions the candidate may have.  Thank them for coming and explain the notification process to them before they leave.

 

After the interview

• Check references. Verify their employment history and answers to the questions they provided you. The questions you ask previous employers must be job related.

• Make your selection. After taking time to review each candidate and check his or her references, confer with your selection committee. The committee members should try to put aside any personal biases during the selection process.