From Smart Company

Here's your chance to get to know a potential employee and to gauge whether they would "fit" into your organisation. Have a plan and have questions prepared.

1. Make a short list of applicants

There is little point interviewing everyone who applies; this will only put a strain on your time.

Give applicants clear instructions when inviting them to an interview. Make sure they know:

Where you are and how to get there.
What they should bring with them.
Who they should ask for.
How long the interview is likely to last.
Give yourself enough time between interviews to consider an applicant’s performance before sitting down with the next one. Make notes during and after the interview. That extra time will also help relax applicants: they won’t be idling together in the waiting room or feel they are being hurried through the interview so you can meet a timetable.

If it’s possible, have another employee or a business partner join the interview. If the position requires a particular skill it will be useful to set the applicant a short skills test.

2. Find a quiet space

Always find a quiet, private room to conduct the interview. Your applicant will most likely be anxious about the interview process and you need to make sure that they are comfortable. Ask your candidate if they’d like water or coffee, it’s a very simple way of putting them at their ease and, hopefully, more honest.

Thank them for applying and coming in for an interview.
Briefly describe your business.
Briefly describe the role they would be playing in your business.

3. What to ask your potential employee

A job interview should not be considered as “just a chat” with an applicant, stresses Kevin Chandler, executive director of Chandler Macleod. Equally, it’s not suitable to run the interview as an interrogation or to play out any “good cop/bad cop” style scenarios. Nor should you talk too much.

Your role in the interview is to identify the applicant’s underlying job skills and give them a clear picture of what working for your business would involve.

With a crowded job market, Chandler, an organisational psychologist, is quick to remind businesses that the interview process also allows the candidate to review your business. You may offer them work but ultimately the decision whether to accept is theirs.

When interviewing, you are looking to learn about the candidate as a rounded individual. Ask about their family and leisure activities: how do their interests and values complement your business. Let the applicant talk: the more you speak the less you’ll learn about your applicant.