Interviewing

1. Planning

1.1 What are you looking for?

Prepare a job outline and a person specification. Use these to establish clear criteria against which candidates can be assessed (see 6).

• Weight the criteria according to their importance.For example, a customer adviser might need communication skills (weighted nine), then teamworking (six), followed by technical knowledge (five), and so on.

1.2 What selection methods will you use?

• Initial information can be obtained from candidates in writing and used to produce a shortlist.For example, a CV or application form will answer basic information about experience and qualifications.
• Interviews explore candidates' experience, attitudes and skills in more depth (see 3).Only interview those candidates who stand a reasonable chance of success.
• Important skills or characteristics can be assessed in other ways.For example, psychometric tests can examine personality, ability and aptitude.

1.3 What type of interview will you hold?

Options include:

• Formal interviews, using planned questions to explore the selection criteria.
• Less structured, informal interviews to exchange information and to get to know candidates. Take care to avoid personal matters which may infringe a candidate's right to privacy.Informal interviews alone rarely form an adequate basis for fair comparisons between candidates and final decisions.
• Sequential interviews, involving different interviewers focusing on different aspects of the candidates (eg technical skills).The results of each interview are used to brief a final interview panel.
• Group interviews, involving several candidates, as an inexpensive way of providing information and assessing teamworking and interpersonal skills.Group interviews can be too competitive, and may not be suitable for senior roles.