Hire Standards: The Art of Interviewing

As a hiring manager for your team, have you ever wondered about the key to successful interviewing? This article delves into the crucial steps of preparing for interviews, including the best questions to ask and those to avoid, how to create effective scorecards, and how to adopt a continuous improvement approach to help you identify the best candidates for your team.

Optimizing the Interview Process

Benefits

When you wear your interviewer hat, you become the face of your company. How can you ensure that you are talking with the right candidate for your team while inspiring them to join you?

This article can help you:

• Improve your hiring results by helping you interview better and smarter.
• Facilitate your decision making process.
• Enhance the hiring experience for you and for the candidates.

Find the Gaps

Before starting, you might want to find out what are the current gaps of knowledge in your interviewing process. Take a moment to reflect on the last interviews you and your team have participated.

Here are some examples of questions that can help:

• In what areas of interviewing do you feel the most comfortable?
• What are the biggest pains for you when interviewing?
• What did you like the most about the last interviews you took part?
• What would you change from the last interviews you joined?

Once you have gathered the answers, try to map out things in common and the biggest pain points to tackle.

Standardise the Interview Process

By knowing the objective of each interview stage, it will be easier for you to focus your assessment on the right topics. It is crucial to decide the number of steps and the scope of each of them.

Sometimes additional steps will be needed, sometimes we can even shorten this list. The lower the number of steps, the more efficient our process will be.

1. Screening call:
   Evaluate candidate’s overall experience, motivations for a change and for joining your company, alignment on expectations.
   ‍
2. Skills assessment:
   Test the candidate’s expertise, thinking process, presentation skills, and ways of approaching a challenge. We recommend evaluating the needed skills during a call whenever possible instead of resorting to offline assessments. This way we will avoid candidate dropouts while saving time for both the hiring team and the candidate.
   ‍
3. Team fit interview:
   ‍Measure how well the candidate aligns with the current team’s working style and company values.

After all interviews with the candidate have taken place. It is time for the team to discuss all interviewers’ feedback about the candidate to facilitate the hiring decision. This can be accomplished asynchronous or during a debrief session.

💡Adapt the steps of each recruitment process to the role and department needs.

Select the Interview Panel

When opening a new role and defining the interview process, it is the time to consider who is going to be part of the interview panel and assess the candidates in each stage. We can select the panel based on:

• Who the candidate will report to?
• With whom the candidate will interact on a regular basis?
• Who will train this candidate?
• Who owns enough expertise to assess hard/technical skills?

How to Get Ready for an Interview?

To feel in control before the interview, check and prepare! These two simple steps will help you get ready for the conversation. After some practice, this will become second nature.

Check:

• The job description and kick-off document (the summary of the overall hiring goal, requirements, and process).
• Candidate’s CV and relevant platforms such as LinkedIn, GitHub, Behance or Medium.
• Interview goal, date, and participants.

Prepare:

• A quiet place for your interview.
• Your laptop, needed tools and space to take notes.
• The scorecards that you are going to use to asses the candidate. We will dive deeper into scorecards later.

How to Structure an Interview?

Every interview is different. Following this structure will help you standardise the process, build an excellent experience for the candidates and take consistent notes to compare profiles in an orderly manner.

Make an intro:

• Be an ambassador for your company: why did you join? What do you enjoy the most?
• Explain who you are and what you do at the company.
• Share the purpose, structure and length of the interview.
• Inform you will take notes.

Ask your questions:

• Guide the conversation.
• Assess their technical skills and cultural fit.
• Follow up questions when more details are needed.

Answer their questions:

• Encourage the candidate to ask questions.
• Reply honestly.
• Keep your company values in mind.

Wrap up:

• Thank the candidate for their time.
• Outline next steps.
• Confirm the main contact is the recruiter.

💡 When there are multiple interviewers, align beforehand on who will act as the moderator

Maximizing Your Interview: Essential Techniques and Questions

What Questions to Ask in an Interview?

Knowing when and how to use different Interview Methods is essential for any interviewer. Understanding the best ways to use these methods can give you an extra edge that could make all the difference when it comes to conducting an interview.

Ice Breaker

Start with simple questions to make both you and the candidate feel more comfortable. Some examples could be “Have you heard about us before applying?” or “Why did you choose this career path?”

STAR

It stands for Situation > Task > Action > Results. This method helps to understand the candidate’s behaviour in specific situations and the candidate’s structure and storytelling skills.

An example could be: “Please share with us a time when you think you failed. What was the task? What action did you take? How did things turn out?”

Other similar methods to STAR are PAR (Problem > Action > Result) and PARLA (Problem > Action > Result > Applied > Learned).

TED

The ‘Tell, Explain, Describe’ method is used to get more information from the candidate. It helps you to build open ended questions which are important to broadly assess the candidate.

Examples include “Tell me about your working style and preferences” and “Describe what are the main challenges in your role”.

5W

The 5Ws are Why, What, Who, When and Where. Use the 5Ws when you want your questions to remain open and general. For instance: ”Why did you decide to apply to our position?” or ”Where do you want to be professionally in 2 years?”

How to Ask Questions in an Interview?

Familiarise yourself with these Interview Techniques to be a resourceful interviewer. The more techniques you know, the more you will get out of the conversations with candidates.

Funnel

Start with an open question and narrow it down for details. For example, you could begin with “What are your main responsibilities as an engineer?” and then continue with “How comfortable are you using X technology?”

Behavioral and Situational

Here the aim is to discover how the candidate typically behaves in a particular scenario. Some examples are “Tell me about how you have worked under pressing due dates” and “Describe a time when you disagreed with your team”

Self-Reflection

These questions help us to assess how candidates think about themselves from another perspective. For instance “How do you think your colleagues would describe you?” or “What achievements do you expect to have in 6-12 months?”

Scale and Numerical

Asking the candidate to rate a skill or number a list of topics. There are a number of examples like “Name your 2-3 key learnings during your last experience” and “From 1 to 10, how comfortable are you with X tool?”

Avoid Inadmissible Questions

To ensure a fair and inclusive interview process that aligns with the values of diversity and inclusion, we should base our hiring decisions exclusively on objective reasons.

It is also crucial to take into consideration your local jurisdiction. For example, in Germany, questions that violate the anti-discrimination law are inadmissible (Allgemeines Gleichstellungsgesetz).

Inadmissible questions are usually related to:

• Partnership and family planning
• Health issues
• Beliefs
• Political conviction
• Trade union affiliation
• Ethnic origin
• Wealth
• Criminal record

Overcoming Unconscious Bias: Creating a Diverse Workforce

Become Aware of your Unconscious Bias

According to a study by Deloitte, organisations with inclusive cultures are 3x higher performing, 6x more innovative, and 8x more likely to achieve better business outcomes.

By becoming aware of our unconscious bias, we are able to significantly reduce it, leading to greater diversity in our growing teams. We are going to examine the most common types of unconscious bias below.

Anchoring

Anchoring happens when we compare all candidates to an ideal profile. The solution is to remember that there is no ideal profile and focus on what the candidate in front of us can bring.

Effective Heuristic

Basing our assessment on the candidate's appearance. To avoid it, we need to erase our personal appearance preferences and focus on the skills.

Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias materialises in the tendency to favour candidates who match our beliefs. Inadvertently we can start leading the candidate to the ideal answers to reinforce the initial thought that they are the perfect match. We can ask the same questions to every candidate using scorecards to avoid falling into this pitfall.

Bandwagon Effect

The bandwagon effect happens when we blindly follow the opinion of the most dominant member of the team. To stay away from it we can encourage ourselves to give honest feedback when delivering our scorecards or sharing comments in a debrief.

Stereotyping

We fall into it when we bring our stereotypes with us to the interviews. We can avoid it by focusing on the candidate's qualifications and experience rather than on their background.

Halo and Horn Effect

The halo and horn effect in recruitment refers to how a positive (Halo) or negative (Horn) first impression can blind us for the rest of the interview. First impressions can be deceiving and hinder objectivity when evaluating a candidate. Anonymising CVs and using a scorecard are two of the tools we have to fight against this bias.

Score Your Hires with a Scorecard

A scorecard is "a list of the skills, traits, and qualifications someone will need to have to succeed in the upcoming role".

Creating scorecards will help the whole hiring team to be aligned with who you are hiring for, enabling you to build up your recruitment strategy to fill in a role faster and more smoothly.

A Good Scorecard

Effective scorecards have detailed yet concise pros and cons. We need to commit ourselves to providing honest and candid feedback for the content to be actionable. It is also crucial to be objective and avoid falling into the biases mentioned earlier. The best way to ensure we are delivering the scorecard on time is to block 15 minutes after the call to complete it when the conversation is still fresh in our minds.

Guidelines for Rating Candidates on a Scale of 1-5

1: not qualified, 2: limited, 3: average, 4: above average, 5: exceptional

Numerical rating helps to create a more objective assessment process, aiding interviewing teams in making better hiring decisions. A five-point scale is recommended to measure a candidate's qualifications, ranging from “not qualified” to “exceptional qualification”. Numerical ratings standardise the feedback process, allowing for a more accurate comparison of candidates and a more informed decision-making process.

Steps to Create a Scorecard

By following these three steps, you can create scorecards tailored to your needs. There are two examples at the end.

1- Define the outcome and responsibilities of the role

Start by defining the main responsibilities and outcomes for the role involving the whole Hiring Team. We recommend asking open questions to help you with this task, such as:

• What would be the impact of the new hire on the team, the business, or the product?
• What would a typical {day, quarter, year} look like for a person in this role?
• What goals should be achieved for this role in {3, 6, 12} months?
• What are the expectations regarding teamwork and collaboration?

‍

2- Define the desired traits and characteristics‍

• Hard skills: Create a list of technical skills that are necessary to succeed in this role. By being realistic with the must-have skills, you have greater chances of finding candidates. Ask yourself:
  = Are there any skills you can compromise on?
  = What are the skills that can be picked up on the job/coachable?
  = What are the skills that the candidate should know from the start?

• Soft skills: Define what cognitive, social, and personal abilities a candidate can contribute to an effective work environment and success in the role. Challenge the team to ensure they are relevant for the role, the company stage, working style, and team values.
• Values and traits: Values are fundamental ideas and beliefs that guide a person/company’s motivations and decisions. Traits are characteristics of a person that describe how they tend to feel, think, and behave. These are not an extension of soft skills, so it’s good to distinguish them to avoid biases.

3- Document your scorecards

An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is the software you can use to manage each candidate and hiring process. If you have any doubt, we can help you choose the best suited ATS to your needs.

If you are using an ATS, you will most likely have a feature to add your scorecards to the role and automatically request feedback after each interview. If you are not using any ATS, we recommend creating a structured spreadsheet document.

As soon as your scorecard is defined:

• Document it in the ATS.
• Define which interviewer will assess which skills.
• Train the Hiring Team on the purpose of scorecards.

Examples from different ATS

💡 Ask the same questions to all candidates to make it easier to compare who is a better fit

Essential Ingredients and Best Practices for a Great Interviewer

Become a Stronger Interviewer

‍

The perfect recipe for becoming a strong interviewer entails multiple ingredients, such as having the ability to fairly assess candidates that comes with training and having the right processes in place. Furthermore, share personal stories and influence the candidate experience positively.

Be consistent in your communication, listen and remember that the candidate on the other side is also evaluating you and your business. Put yourself in the position of the candidate and imagine how you would feel if you were interviewed by you. Do you feel good or scared?

Summarising Best Practices

Let’s review the main do’s and don’ts for an optimal interview experience for both you and the candidate:

Do:

• Be on time.
• Ask open questions (avoid yes-or-no questions).
• Listen actively (and let the candidate speak).
• Be aware of your body language.
• Take notes and submit your scorecard in a timely matter.
• Be empathetic.
• Be an ambassador for your company.
• Be yourself and enjoy!

Don’t:

• Make assumptions or early judgements.
• Lose consistency with your interview questions.
• Expect the “perfect candidate”.
• Let unconscious bias influence your decision.
• Ask discriminatory questions.
• Be afraid to ask for support.

Conclusion

Learning how to interview is a long-term value you can add to your company and your career now and in the long run. It will not only facilitate your recruitment processes by adding quality and speed but will also make the experience more enjoyable to both you and the candidate.

But there is much more you can achieve if you try to improve everyday.

Taking it One Step Further

Interviewing is an ongoing effort as different people within the business might start getting involved, seniors who are to build their own team, or changes in the hiring process you want to implement. For an interviewing process that is continuously improving, you can find below some side initiatives you can start with.

Open Channel to Share Questions

This can be a channel in your messaging platform, an email point of contact, or a form where people can feel comfortable sharing their questions and concerns regarding interviewing and hiring. This way you can spot new gaps and areas of improvement and progressively train the team.

Ask your Team for Feedback

Take a moment during, after, or both, to ask your team how satisfied they are with the interview process. Challenge them to learn if there is anything they still feel uncomfortable/unaware of to complement their training. The open channel mentioned above is a good place to share feedback and you can also facilitate a way to share anonymous comments.

Listen to your Candidates

A precious source of feedback comes from the candidates. Keep an eye on what they share about their interviews to spot any potential gaps and issues to improve. Listen to the candidates through all stages. Reflect upon their comments and take action to improve the selection process and the candidate experience.

‍

To Keep on Growing your Knowledge

Strengthen your Network

• Join the startup community at Talking Talent.
• Read relevant articles on the Acelr8 Blog.
• Find additional resources in our knowledge base.
• Listen to interviews with founders, venture builders, growth managers, and everybody that is involved in the scaling of a startup at A-Players.
• Learn more about us on the Acelr8 FAQ.

For any Hiring Need, you Can Always Rely on Acelr8

• Acelr8 Connect to receive ready-to-interview candidates.
• Acelr8 Executive Search to find leaders.
• Acelr8 Embedded Recruiting for your embedded recruiter on demand.

We hope this article was useful for you. In case of any questions, we would love to hear from you!

‍