Finding the best candidates for your company is a vital part of any successful hiring process. An effective and well-executed candidate interview process can make the difference between finding the perfect fit for your team and seeing your new employee turnover numbers skyrocket.

When setting up an interview process, it's important to remember that it should be tailored to your specific company's needs and recruiting goals. The best interview processes start with a thorough job description that outlines what is expected from the position. This will help you ensure that the candidates you interview have the skills and experience necessary to be successful in the role.

Once you have a job description, you'll need to create interview process steps that cover all of your requirements and act like a candidate funnel. Depending on the size of your company and the complexity of the role, you may only need to conduct a few interviews or have a more detailed series of steps. The key is to ensure that each step provides useful information about the candidate and isn't just there for show.

During the process of the interview, ask "the right" questions. What are "the right questions?" you ask? Well, let's use an example role to illustrate. Say you're looking for a content writer - you'll likely want to ask questions about the candidate's writing style, areas of expertise, experience with SEO and other digital marketing tools, as well as understanding their motivation for pursuing this role.

You should take all of the necessary metrics that a candidate must hit to be considered a success in the role, and reverse engineer the vital skills that they must possess to meet those standards - Then ask questions that allow the candidate to showcase their proficiency in those areas.

Or, you can rely on Pillar's library of 1000+ questions in our interview intelligence library. We have open-ended, semi-structured questions that are specific to the primary roles in a company and can be added to your interview with just the click of a button.

Chat with someone from our team to see how our library of questions can make your interviews more efficient and effective.

Interview Process Steps For Employers

So let's dive into the types and stages of an interview process- and since this is a preliminary guide, we'll begin by creating an overview of all the steps, and then hone in on some vital details to consider.

First, you'll want to create a job description. This is the first interview process step for an employer and it green-lights everything else that will take place in the interview process. Working with your hiring managers and team will help you set the parameters for what your ideal candidate should have in terms of experience and skills. Then, you should outline the details in a document that you can share with your team. Salary, Skills, Expectations, Past Performance, etc. - all of these things should be included so everyone is on the same page. It's also important that this document includes a timeline of the entire interview process so all involved parties can stay organized.

After creating the job description and setting the timeline, you'll want to move on to the actual interview steps. The first step is typically a phone screen or video call with your hiring manager - this gives the team an initial evaluation of whether a candidate has the credentials and experience necessary for the role. If they pass through this stage, you can then move on to other steps that could include:

- Behavioral Interviews

- Technical Interviews

- Assessments, Writing Tests, or Case Studies

- On-site / In-Person Interviews

Depending on the complexity of the role, you may need to add additional steps in between to get a better understanding of their skills and experience. Additionally, due to COVID-19 many companies are opting for virtual interviews and utilizing interview intelligence software to do these assessments online.

Finally, after the interview process is over you'll need to decide on the best candidate for the role. This shouldn't be done hastily - take your time and thoroughly evaluate which candidate's skills and experience would be most beneficial to your team and organization as a whole.

We understand that creating an effective interview process can be daunting, so Pillar is here to help. Our interview intelligence platform allows you to evaluate candidates more efficiently and quickly, by providing you with a library of 1000+ questions tailored for the primary roles in a company. Plus our team of experienced recruiting professionals can guide you through every step of the interviewing process - from creating job descriptions to conducting interviews and making decisions on who should get hired.

Best Interview Process

How to improve the hiring process. The best interview process is the one that costs the least, takes minimal time, and (most importantly) identifies excellent employees. The problem is, most often, those 3 don't go hand-in-hand. But with some thought and effort, you can design an interview process that works for your company and its specific needs.

How to design a better hiring process:

Creating the best interview process starts with understanding what makes a great candidate- and what makes a great employee. Have meaningful conversations with hiring managers about what qualities they look for in a successful employee before designing the interview process. Talk to employees who have been hired in the past and ask about their experiences in the interview process, both good and bad. If you can track the differences between the best and "worst" employees you can easily see where things have gone wrong in the hiring process and make those corrections.

Once you have a better understanding of your ideal candidate, create a timeline for the entire process - from job posting to hire date - and begin building out your steps. Also consider creating multiple roles within the Hiring team - such as a Recruiter, Interviewer, Scheduler, and Evaluator. This will ensure that each step in the process is taken care of efficiently and accurately, and all areas are being covered.

Finally, build a tech stack to empower your team with bandwidth and time. Hiring managers and panel interviewers who are stressed out, late to every interview, and show that they're not enjoying their work is one of the fastest ways to "freak out" attentive candidates. Investing in a stack of tools that integrate from beginning to end will help you save time and resources. ATS software, AI sourcing, digital assistants, interview intelligence software, and other tools to streamline the process are great ways to reduce those pressures and automate anything that doesn't need a personal touch.

Ultimately, creating the best possible interview process takes time. But with the right team, tools, and processes in place, you can begin building the team that will make your company successful for years to come.

Interview Process Questions

One of the biggest competitive advantages you can have over competitors is the strategic interview questions you ask candidates in the interview process. The more you can prove a candidate's abilities and cultural fit, the better you can predict their success within your organization. Interview process questions are far less important than strategic interview questions.

When creating your list of strategic interview questions, consider the following points:

- Be sure to include a mix of soft and technical questions. Soft questions are typically open-ended and require candidates to elaborate on their experience in order to give you an understanding of how they think or approach tasks. Technical questions will help you determine if the candidate possesses the skills and knowledge necessary for the role.

- Make sure you are asking questions that align with the job requirements. For example, if you’re hiring a software engineer, ask technical questions related to coding or programming languages. If you’re hiring an accountant, ask more detailed questions about accounting principles and regulatory policies.

- Try to assess their past performance. Ask questions that require the candidate to give an example or provide a specific instance from their professional background of when they successfully completed a task, handled a difficult situation, or conquered a challenge.

- Ensure the questions are relevant to the role and organization. Candidates should be able to answer your questions confidently and clearly if they possess the knowledge and experience you’re looking for.

One of the best ways to get an understanding of a candidate’s skills and abilities is to ask them sample interview questions and then analyze their answers. Sample questions can be found from various resources online, like Glassdoor or Indeed, or you can make up your own depending on specific skill sets or qualities you are looking for in a successful candidate.

Utilizing and testing sample questions can give you a better understanding of the candidate’s experience and knowledge base before making your hiring decision. With a well-thought-out interview process and an arsenal of strategic questions, you’ll be on your way to finding the perfect fit for your team in no time!

Schedule a demo to see how Pillar's library of more than 1000+ interview intelligence questions can help you make better hires.

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