Creating an interview plan

Interviews are a helpful way to gather information about potential employees. When done properly, they can yield information which would be unavailable through methods such as assessments or resumes. However, running interviews without first creating a plan can allow a variety of potential issues to arise. One of the biggest criticisms of interviews is that they do not follow a plan, and without a set list of questions for the interviewer to ask, the resulting information can be inconsistent and unreliable.

This lack of a consistent list is exactly why an interviewer needs a plan. In order to accurately compare candidates, there must be criteria on which they can be compared. That is to say, you cannot compare answers or approaches if there is no frame of reference. Therefore, it is important to create standard questions to ask candidates. In order to accomplish this, one needs to identify the key aspects of the job. If unsure, check the job description or create one for the position.

Once the key characteristics of the job have been identified, you should design questions to assess whether or not the candidate is knowledgeable in this area, and if they are a fit for the position. Make sure not to only ask solely skill based questions during the interview, but also questions that can help determine if they will be a good fit for the organizational culture.

Make sure that you take notes on each candidate’s responses. This will provide a level of detail sufficient to later review the interview results accurately. This is helpful for two reasons; first, it allows you, as the interviewer, to come back later and better process the information. Second, it will provide documentation regarding why a particular candidate was chosen, providing a built-in legal defense against claims of improper hiring. This leads to the next step for creating an interview plan: make sure you there are multiple interviewers to reduce possible biases from any individual interviewer. This also helps increase the validity of the interview process.

In addition to having multiple interviewers, it is strongly recommended that you create a grading system that is linked to the interview questions. By doing this, you are creating a more objective process that is more likely to be perceived as fair and valid. This is because you are minimizing personal opinion by increasing the amount of objectivity in the interviewing process. Do not be afraid to have aspects of personality or interaction as part of the grading criteria for the candidate. Finally, after each interview, all of the interviewers should convene and discuss their impressions and grading of applicants. Once this is done, a consensus score should be relatively simple to agree upon regarding which applicants should move on in the hiring process.

Quick summary

1. Identify the important job criteria, ideally based on the job description.
2. Create a set of questions to evaluate these criteria, which will be asked to all candidates.
3. Take notes of the candidates responses.
4. Include multiple interviewers.
5. Design a formal grading system with criteria.
6. Convene with other interviewers and compare notes on each of the candidates.