As an interviewer, you might be feeling the nerves too. But it’s your job to put the interview candidates at ease and ensure that they have a great experience and take away a positive impression of you and your organisation. Here are some ideas to help you build rapport and beat any biases you may encounter along the way.
Set the right tone
You are the face of your organisation when interviewing candidates and first impressions count.
Your candidates will have made an effort to look their best for the interview and so should you. It shows mutual respect and demonstrates to the candidate that you are taking the process seriously. Remember if you work in an industry that requires heavy or manual labour and your clothes may need to be changed, you can arrange the scheduling for the interview for times that best suit you to be dressed accordingly.
All the usual manners apply when meeting a candidate too. Smiling, a handshake if appropriate, and offering a glass of water always go a long way to helping someone feel more comfortable in what can be a daunting experience. If someone is visibly very nervous, consider taking an extra few moments at the beginning to offer some small talk and allow them to settle into the interview – the weather, traffic, transport or parking are all easy subjects you can use.
Explain the process
Whether the interview is in person or online, always make clear introductions and outline the agenda for the interview. For example, “first we’ll all introduce ourselves, we’ll then ask you about yourself and your CV, after that we’ll ask you some questions so we can get to know more about your knowledge and skills, there’ll then be time for you to ask us any questions you have and some basic housekeeping questions at the end”. (In this context, housekeeping might mean questions on notice periods, holidays already booked or similar type questions).
Ideally you will be interviewing with a colleague so you can both take notes and form independent views on the candidate’s skills and knowledge. Explain this to your candidate as well so they don’t worry if they see you both taking notes.
Unconscious biases
It’s inevitable that you will judge some people from the outset – either in a positive or negative way. This is usually down to unconscious biases and unless we are aware of them and put in place some simple steps to mitigate them, we may miss out on the best candidate.
Sometimes we like a person because they look like us or went to the same school or we have something else in common with them. We will disproportionately favour that person even if they do not have all the skills needed to do the job. Similarly, we might discount a person who does have the right skills because we think they are too different to us.
One way to mitigate this bias is to ensure that you ask the same questions to all candidates and put in place a scoring system for the answers. This can be a very revealing process and it helps keep you focussed on what you need for the role to be fulfilled properly.
You might also jump to conclusions about a person based on the way their appearance, age, race, gender, address or academic history. To combat these biases, try to imagine at least two alternative conclusions or stories to the one you have automatically jumped to. Even practice doing this as an everyday exercise, and it will ensure you are open to better communication and relationships with a more diverse audience.
If your candidate senses that you are biased towards them, it will not put them at ease and may even go as far as damaging the reputation of your organisation as they are bound to share their experiences of the interview.
Closing the interview
As noted above, ensure that you treat all candidates equally and fairly, and this includes when you close the interview and explain the next steps in the process. Even if you believe you have just interviewed the best person for the job, you just don’t know if the next candidate could be even better. Keep this in mind to ensure fairness and balance and to ensure that you don’t make promises you can’t keep.
The more effort you make in making candidates feel comfortable and included, the better your interviews will be. You can enhance your organisation’s reputation and ensure you find the best person for the job.
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