Most, if not all adults have been subjected to the interviewing process. This has never been viewed as a fun or exciting task but more as a necessary evil. This article will concentrate on the employer’s side of the interviewing table, however, candidates will surely learn what is expected of them by reading on.  

First, let’s deal with why the selection process is dreaded by so many.  When discussing the fear factor with hiring managers, I have found that there are many questions that come to light when preparing for an interview.  What can I legally ask the candidate?  How do I make the interviewing process fair?  What are the best questions to ask?  How can I get the most information from a candidate and can I tell if they are lying?

Let’s start with the first question.  To stay within the law, you must stick with questions that address the vacant position.  Asking questions relevant to skills and abilities they possess, behavioral questions relating to past experience and what they expect from their employer are most beneficial.  Stay away from questions that require candidates to reveal personal characteristics unrelated to the job such as, age, and race, marital status, children or religious affiliations.  If a candidate starts to discuss issues outside of the realm of the job, politely shift back to the next job related question.   Questions regarding disabilities often come up.  Hiring managers are unclear about the proper way to structure the question when faced with an obvious disability.  The appropriate way to handle this would be to show the candidate the job description, have them review it and then ask if there is anything they feel would prevent them from performing the essential functions of the job.  It will be their decision on whether they can perform, not your perception of what they can and can’t do.  

The second question regarding fairness to all candidates can be solved quite easily.  By developing an interviewing form that asks the same questions to each candidate, you have alleviated the question of fairness.  Use a rating scale for each question and after the interview is complete, rate the candidate on a predetermined scale.  When all candidates have been interviewed, the rating scale allows for a method of comparing each candidate by evaluating their strengths and weaknesses.

When developing actual questions to be asked of each candidate, you want to extract as much information as possible in the time you have allotted for the interview.  Experienced hiring managers feel open ended questions reveal the most about a candidate.  Open ended questions are those requiring more than a yes or no answer.  Candidates are required to give more information and in doing so will tell the interviewer what they need to know about the level of knowledge they possess or possibly how they might handle themselves in difficult situations.  It helps to structure the interview in such a way that you are asking general questions about their past experience, behavioral questions that allow you to determine if they will be a good fit for your company and questions relating to their expectations of the job and their employer.  Always allow time for the candidate to ask questions of you.  You want candidates that are looking for the right fit and not just somewhere to work until something better comes along.  Be prepared to answer questions on pay and benefits.  Know the timeline on making a decision regarding the hiring process.  A word of caution when discussing the position; never make a binding contract statement.  An example of this would be “You will always have a job here as long as you do good work.”  Most courts will consider that a verbal contract and, as long as the employee has a good record, they must remain employed.  As we all know, good employees do get laid off.    

There are no sure fire ways to know if a candidate is lying however, asking open ended questions and observing the way the response is delivered should help to answer the level of knowledge the candidate possesses.  I always recommend an employer check references and in some cases, do a background check.  You may not get a three page narrative from the responder however, you can at least find out whether they actually worked for the company, for how long and in what capacity.  

Being prepared for the interviewing process takes the “evil” away from the necessary task at hand.  Do your homework so you can find the right person for the job.  It will save you time and money in the long run.  Your company will be well equipped with strong, knowledgeable employees and we all know how important that is.