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The interview process can be time-consuming to manage, particularly if you are seeing a few potentially qualified candidates and have only a limited amount of time available to dedicate to the task. But failing to offer the interviewee a positive experience can harm your image, so you need to make sure that everything is on point.

Luckily, there is one simple way to improve your hiring and interview process that can lead to better results the first time you give it a try. Here’s what you need to know.

Make Pre-Interview Planning a Priority

Companies with some of the best interview processes didn’t develop their reputation through luck. Instead, they are typically dedicated to having a pre-interviewing planning phase, increasing the odds that the meetings will go as planned.

Pre-planning is vital, especially for panel interviews, as it gives everyone a chance to get on the same page. Without some preparation, it’s easy to miss an important question you meant to ask the candidate, end up prioritizing the wrong points or characteristics, or just stumbling through the interview.

This approach also gives your company a chance to strategize before you meet any interviewees. You can review the potential questions in advance and work together to develop new ones if anything has been overlooked. For panel interviews, you can craft a structure that includes which interviewers will handle which questions, giving you a way to manage who is actively taking the floor throughout the process. You can even create scoring sheets for assessing the candidate, giving you an additional method for standardizing how everyone evaluates the candidate.

Why Planning Helps

Aside from giving you an opportunity to get organized, pre-interview planning also gives you the best chance of making a positive impression on the candidate.

A disorganized, haphazard interview may lead the interviewee to assume that the company is similarly disheveled. For top talent, this could serve as enough of a red flag for them to not consider a position with your business, even if an offer is extended. And, it today’s increasingly digital world, a subpar candidate experience isn’t just going to get noticed, it may even be shared with others, making it harder to find great candidates in the future.

Typically, you can handle all of the planning tasks in a single meeting and, once everything is set, can use the same approach for every candidate being considered for that particular position.

Planning also helps with post-assessment activities. Since everyone had the same focus, there may be less conflict on who the best candidate was or the discussions may be easier to have since the priorities were identified in advance.

Ultimately, pre-planning for an interview is a relatively simple task that can completely reshape the interview experience for you, the panel, and the candidate, making it a wise addition to your interview process.

If you would like to learn more or are currently seeking top talent for an open position, the knowledgeable professionals at TempStaff can help. Contact us today to see how our experience can work for you.

 

 


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