Interviews for best candidate experience

Everyone here has been a candidate at least once in their professional life. One of the top expectations a candidate has from their prospective employers is that it has transparent processes of interview & selection.

I have attended many discussions where everyone has had at least one or more bad interview experiences. If all of us have one bad experience also then millions of interviews are not conducted appropriately. Let us try to understand why the situation is so poor. Often some precursors of an interview also influence the experience of a candidate in the interview and hence it becomes important to put things right from start.

85% of candidates are interviewing for more than 2 interviews often companies do not recognize the candidates have the power to negotiate as they can choose what they want in the market. Hence it becomes necessary to give the candidate’s best experience during the interviews as that would leave an impression on the candidate basis which they’ll compare the options available in the market.

Below are some proposed points to be kept in mind in the interview process which can help improve the candidate experience

Pre-interview approach –

-       Application process – The tools used by companies to accept applications must be technologically advanced where it can pick up information from cv with the least inputs by the candidates. In this era of millennials and GenY, the ATS has to be mobile-friendly and have WhatsApp number support bots to help candidates apply.

-       Respect the time & interest of a candidate - Candidates should be spoken with at their available time and should not be rushed through to just take some details to share their profiles further.

-       Specific, in detail accurate job descriptions – The job descriptions of the roles must be precise and must explain each detail of the roles and responsibilities a candidate would be expected to perform on the ground in the role. Also, the JDs can be verified for diversity-friendly verbiage.

-       Compensation ranges/compensation - What makes the available role promising for the candidate? A candidate’s current compensation must not be a predictor of how much can be offered to him/her for a role rather it should be an assessment outcome-driven decision. Also, the ranges for the role must be disclosed or candidates’ expectations must be understood and if it is not feasible then their application must not be moved further. Employers must refrain from proceeding with a mindset to get the interview completed then they’ll see if salary can be negotiated.

-       Non-monetary benefits - Must be discussed in detail with the candidates, along with the growth possibilities, and expected exposure by the project.

-       Explain the interview process - The number of rounds of interviews and type, mode of interviews must be and steps beforehand.

Interview Approach -

-       Treat the candidate as a stakeholder – The recruitment process runs around the candidate some say around the job opening and all have their points of argument. In my view, the key stakeholders are candidates as they have more negotiation power in the process and hence the heart of the process.

-       Respect the time & interest of a candidate - Candidates must be thanked for the time they have dedicated to the interview or for showing interest to apply. Without candidates’ applications, there can’t be any hiring, because of the abundance of applications we might feel it is not necessary to acknowledge candidates but the comprehensive candidate experience enhances with these small steps.

-       No personal questions- No interviewer should ask personal questions like if a lady is pregnant. Plan for making babies or marriage plans, commuting possibilities. The eligibility of a candidate must be decided only by the skill, knowledge, and attitude to work. Building trust in interviews mutually has to start from somewhere then only we can expect candidates to disclose their real issues or commit only to what one can honor?

-       Give candidate enough chance to speak – In an interview, only 30% of speaking should be done by the interviewer and no leading questions should be asked, rather the questions should be open-ended and the interviewer should make notes of the interview to make an informed decision which can be anytime substantiated as a fact post-interview to other stakeholders including candidates for taking a specific decision.

-       Keep the interview format standard for all candidates – The questions asked in the interview must be assessing the same skills for all applicants for a role. As part of a fair recruitment practice the skills, traits, and attitudinal requirements should be set up beforehand and questions to assess whether these must be the same or similar for all candidates. This avoids unconscious biasedness (HALO & HORN effect, Stereotyping, etc). In a structured STAR (Situation Task Action Result) approach questions and probing should be used to make assessments.

Post interview approach

-       Minimize the recruitment time – Candidates are interviewing for several positions in the market and hence the fast mover always has an advantage. If possible let all interviews happen in a day or a maximum of 2-3 days. Also if there are multiple rounds of interviews, if there is a possibility multiple panels can take one interview at the same time to make an assessment and then a decision.

-       Provide feedback to candidates at each stage of recruitment – This needs to be set straight, what we give is what we get back. We are opportunists and do not connect with candidates unless they are not our prospective hires, hence candidates also shop for money as they never see this as a differentiator enough with an employer which can influence their experience and thereby hold them from going elsewhere. (Giving feedback is among one the differentiators which influence a candidate’s decision to choose employers)

-       Honor what you commit and commit only what you can honor – A recruiter or HM is the ambassador of the organization to the candidate and hence one should be 100% clear about what things are being committed to a candidate in an interview (virtual/face to face). For example – go back to a candidate when you say ‘I’ll come back; you say you’ll check and confirm (please go back and confirm. Someone who was waiting for your decision and gets ghosted will never return to the such organization).

-       Smooth onboarding – Keep connected with the candidate post offer letter is released and help them with their queries and navigate through the onboarding process and complete formalities. Hiring managers can keep them engaged by sharing what can he/she expect out of the role, sharing some study material, sending goodies, meet them face to face.

-       Keep in touch – Candidates who did not get selected in the interview or screening can be sent a consent message if they are willing to receive other open job roles for which they might be interested to apply. Also, newsletters can be shared with them which give them update about the organization, compiled together with publically released/available information.

My postings reflect my views and do not necessarily represent the views of my employer, Accenture.

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