INTERVIEW TRAINING FOR MANAGERS: How To Hire The Best People

Before starting the interview process, planning is essential. You need to determine the skills, abilities, background, and experience a candidate must demonstrate to perform the job effectively, known as competencies. Planning in advance is crucial because you can't find what you're looking for without defining it first.

Identify three to five main competencies for all candidates applying for the same role. These will guide your interview questions. For example, as an outsourced recruitment professional, my own competencies are:

1. Finding Job Candidates: Locating talent that clients can't find on their own.

2. Conducting Screening Calls: Assessing candidates' backgrounds and aligning them with job requirements.

3. Communication: Convincing candidates about job opportunities and clearly communicating with employers about candidate suitability.

Review your job ad to identify these competencies, focusing on the ideal candidate's background. For example, a finance accountant ad might list too many details; simplify to three core competencies like in-depth financial accounting knowledge, detailed reporting skills, and independence. Similarly, an iOS developer ad might focus on coding in Swift and Objective-C, testing experience, and meeting tight deadlines.

Additionally, research competencies empirically. For instance, a study found top salespeople are often modest and also curious, challenging common assumptions. Use empirical studies to determine the balance of hard and soft skills required for a role.

Write down your competencies to ensure consistent candidate evaluation.

In this lesson, we look at an overview of the STAR behavioral interview technique, which we’ll use throughout this course. STAR, standing for Situation, Task, Action, and Result, is a globally adopted method in use since the 1980s, useful across various industries including software development, engineering, accounting, and more.

The STAR method focuses on having candidates share detailed stories about their past actions to predict future performance. By asking for specific examples, it becomes difficult for candidates to embellish or fabricate responses, providing a rich basis for further probing and analysis.

A helpful handout is included with this lesson, accessible via the resources button. This handout can be used during interviews to stay on track. To illustrate the STAR method, we'll walk through the handout together.

Crafting an effective opening question is essential for setting the tone of an interview and aligning with the 'Situation' part of the STAR framework. A well-constructed opening question ensures a natural conversation flow and should include three components:

1. Ask for a Story: Use open-ended prompts like "Can you tell me about a time when…" to invite detailed narratives.

2. Add a Bit of Pressure: Incorporate words such as "challenging" to encourage discussion of complex scenarios, providing insight into how candidates handle stress.

3. Specify the Context: Clearly define the subject, such as a specific project or skill, to keep responses focused.

Examples outlined in this lesson include asking about optimizing C# code, leading a team through challenges, creating complex PowerPoint presentations, or selecting keywords for underperforming Google Ads campaigns. Always ensure the question relates directly to the competency being assessed and write it down for clarity and fairness.

To guide candidates through a job interview, use probing questions within the STAR framework (Situation, Task, Action, Result) and general questions to extract detailed information. Start by asking about the context, roles, and challenges in the situation. For tasks, focus on the candidate’s specific role and objectives. Inquire about the precise actions taken, decision-making processes, and resource use. For results, seek details on outcomes, success measurement, and feedback. Encourage more detail by asking follow-up questions like "What happened next?" or revisiting skipped points with "Can you elaborate on ___?" This approach ensures a comprehensive understanding of the candidate's experiences and capabilities.

In behavioral interviews, candidates may struggle to provide adequate responses due to nervousness, generalizations, misunderstandings, overemphasis on team efforts, inexperience, time constraints, or response regret. To overcome these issues, explain the STAR method and interview process beforehand, use probing questions to redirect vague answers, clarify and rephrase misunderstood questions, and encourage candidates to focus on their contributions. Additionally, reassure candidates about the interview duration and allow them to switch examples if needed. Understanding and addressing these challenges will help extract detailed and relevant information for a more effective interview.

In STAR interviews, it's crucial to avoid certain types of questions to gather relevant information and maintain fairness. Avoid hypothetical questions, as they focus on potential actions rather than past behavior. Leading questions suggest desired answers, leading to biased responses. Yes/No questions fail to provide detailed insights. Questions about future behavior and double-barreled questions can confuse candidates and result in incomplete answers. Vague questions lack clear guidance, and irrelevant questions waste time and can introduce bias. Personal questions risk discomfort and discrimination claims. Focus on specific past experiences to better assess a candidate’s abilities and fit for the role.

In this lesson, we'll refine the interview process with key introductory and closing techniques. Structuring the beginning ensures fairness, avoiding bias from personal connections. Greet the candidate warmly, outline the interview flow, and introduce STAR method. Multiple interviewers should enter simultaneously to prevent pre-interview bias. At the interview's close, thank the candidate, explain evaluation procedures, detail next steps like reference checks, offer a timeline for feedback, and express gratitude for their time. Consistency and transparency throughout provide all candidates with an equitable experience, reinforcing your brand regardless of the outcome.

In the last unit, you learned how to conduct effective STAR interviews. In this new unit, we will explore how to document candidates' answers and score their performance for fair comparison with other candidates.

Specifically, we will delve into using interview guides and scorecards.

An interview guide is a structured document used by interviewers to conduct consistent, fair, and effective interviews. It outlines specific steps, questions, and evaluation criteria for interviewing candidates. The goal is to ensure the interviewer stays on track and that all candidates receive equal treatment.

A scorecard is a tool used to systematically evaluate and compare candidates, providing a standardized method for rating based on job-relevant criteria.

There is some overlap between interview guides and scorecards, so we will include both in the same document. You can access this combined resource by clicking on the resources button in this lesson. This refined document is available for your use or as inspiration for creating your own. If you work for a large organization, you may already have these resources available, and it is wise to use them.

To complete the interview guide, start by filling in basic details: interviewer (e.g., Craig Brown), role (Communications Manager), date (June 12, 20XX), and candidate (Jane Doe). Identify key competencies, such as leadership, communication, and social media expertise. Prepare opening questions for each competency, using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result). During the interview, take concise notes in the provided spaces. If more space is needed, continue on the sheet's back, clearly marking sections (e.g., "2A" for the action part of the second competency). This approach ensures organized, unbiased, and accurate note-taking for easy reference.

After completing the interview, score candidates based on key competencies using a consistent scoring key from 1 to 5. For example, a score of 1 indicates minimal, unconvincing detail, while a score of 5 reflects exceptional, unexpected insight. Average the scores for simple scoring. For weighted scoring, assign importance to each competency (e.g., coding skills for a developer might be 60%). Multiply each score by its weighting and sum these for the final score. This method ensures fair, consistent, and objective evaluation, helping to identify the top candidate based on relevant criteria.

Now that you can conduct and score structured behavioral STAR interviews, let's enhance your skills with effective reference checks. Reference checks can provide valuable insights if done correctly. First, email the job ad to the reference so they can review beofre the call. During the call, thank them for their time, verify basic work details, and explain the STAR interview process. Conduct an abridged STAR interview by summarizing the competencies and the candidate's response to the Situation sections of the interview. Then and asking the reference for their recollections of the Tasks, Actions and results. Look for consistency between the candidate's and reference's accounts. Finally, ask, "What advice can you give to help get the best performance possible out of [Candidate] in this new role?" This question can yield honest, useful insights to help you onboard your new hire.

In our first unit, we explored identifying core competencies for interviews through job ad analysis and online research. Now, we introduce a third method: using ChatGPT AI. ChatGPT will generate a list of competencies; refine the query for more precise results. This method provided us with competencies like leadership, sales strategy, market knowledge, and communication skills. While not definitive, ChatGPT offers valuable insights and inspiration, helping you effectively determine the key competencies needed for your role.

Understanding the theory behind conducting interviews is essential, but seeing it in practice is equally important. In this lesson, I'll demonstrate a mock STAR interview to show you how it works in practice. This abridged interview focuses on the opening, one competency, and the closing to keep the lesson concise. My friend Kim Scaravelli will be the candidate for this mock interview. As you watch, take notes on which questions correspond to each part of the STAR acronym (Situation, Task, Action, Result). Additionally, observe how I minimize unconscious bias throughout the interview. Many thanks to Kim for her participation.

Here are a few notes on the interview. Kim is not a real candidate; she was informed of the job title but did not have access to the job ad or interview questions to ensure authentic answers. Kim’s eloquence allowed her to answer in detail without much prompting. I avoided probing deeply into her responses to protect the identities of real clients she referenced. I asked Kim to switch examples twice to align with the interview focus on managing direct reports. Personal chit-chat was avoided to prevent bias. Post-interview, Kim noted her lack of experience managing a direct team, which may affect her chances.