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Category: Interview Evaluation

Introducing Practice Video Interviews!

Introducing Practice Video Interviews!

Job Seekers, do you want to ace your next job interview?

Take a practice video interview now. Watch how you did, share with friends, get feedback or request coaching for interview experts at EasyHire.me.

We’ll help you make sure you’re ready for your next interview.

Scaling Fast? 3 Questions HR Can’t Afford to Forget

Scaling Fast? 3 Questions HR Can’t Afford to Forget

Don’t forget the essentials – especially in times of fast-and-furious growth

Job interviews can be a jarring, if not a downright anxiety-provoking event for many, especially when it’s not for a mere ‘job,’ but for the brave next step in a candidate’s career. Depending on the position, interviews can be high stakes for candidates and hiring managers alike. With recruiting agencies, advertisements, time spent on training, cost of low productivity, possible upfront moving costs and even hiring bonuses, the wrong decision on a hire can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Unstructured interviews with a lack of consistent questions can sometimes have HR and hiring managers forgetting the most basic questions:

 

-Can you do the work?

-Will you like the position and bring your best in every day?

-Will you fit in with the company?

 

These are, of course, the very basics. There are thousands of articles and blogs containing the words: “Top Interview Questions” and most questions do assess one of these things. However, companies of every size need to be cognizant that gaps can start growing if they lack quality HR processes. Make sure to having screening tools, consistent interview techniques, and collaboration processes. For example, an enthusiastic ‘thumbs up’ from the department head should not be the ultimate decider in the hiring of a candidate.

Finally, I’d be an irresponsible blogger if I didn’t mention EasyHire. Which, by total coincidence has sponsored this blog space (too weird!) This software is used by HR departments and staffing professionals to screen large pools of candidates with intuitive video interviewing technology. 

 

One last thing: for job seekers reading this, I think these questions are just as valuable. If you don’t know the answers to these questions with regards to companies you’ve applied for, maybe you should find out!

 

The EasyHire Team

Human Resources Today

How Well Do Your Candidates Interview?

How Well Do Your Candidates Interview?

Video Interview

 

Grill candidates with video interview prep to cool their nerves and increase confidence on game day 

 

Whether you’re working in a search firm setting or a corporate environment as a contract recruiter, think for a moment how much of your time you spend sourcing, screening, and recruiting candidates. A lot. Now think: how much time do you spend preparing your candidates for actual interviews?

Before in-person interviews are scheduled between the candidates you’ve recruited and the companies you represent, it goes without saying you’ve already done a whole lot of work developing the matches, the “good fits.” However, understanding the role and its context within the company and confirming a genuine candidate is great due diligence, but is it enough?

Question for you: “How well do your candidates interview?” If you don’t know, you need this article.

Preparing candidates for real-life interviewing is critical to your success. Using a video interview platform allows candidates to comfortably practice on their own time and gives you the opportunity to review and provide feedback where needed.

 

1: Record, Review, Refine…

 

In the few days, hours, and minutes leading up to the interview, everyone gets nervous. No matter how much coaching you provide, it’s simply how we’re wired. Video interviews can help simulate some of the same pressure felt in in-person interview. Additionally, get used to curveballs. Prepare candidates for questions they may not have thought of candidate can be asked questions they might not expect. Being able to practice this scenario over and over will create flexibility in candidates’ responses.

 

2: “Why do you want to work here?”

 

The well-prepared candidate should know the company he or she is interviewing for better than their own resume. If candidates don’t prepare for this question, it will  not only be obvious, it may be a dealbreaker for their candidacy. Asking this question and reviewing it in a recorded video interview will help your candidate avoid the longest most awkward silence ever.

 

3. Ready, Set…

 

Video interviewing platforms such as Easyhire can simulate the challenging interview environments by prompting candidates with similar questions in a live or pre-recorded scenario. Alongside timed assessment, multiple-choice, extended text, including coding / whiteboarding windows, written response, and others, you can be more confident in your rockstar candidates on their big day.

 

4. Go with confidence!

 

Even with years of experience and qualifications a candidate may have, don’t take chances and assume your candidates will do great until you’ve seen it with your own eyes. Some may be ready to go off the bat. However, many candidates may have been out of the market for a while or are entering a new industry. With new technology, preparing candidates with video interviews may be innovative to some, but it’s really just common sense.

 

-Jeremy Hoffman

VP Business Development

EasyHire

 

Human Resources Today

The many layers of interviewing: Unfold the process with EasyHire.me

The many layers of interviewing: Unfold the process with EasyHire.me

You are using EasyHire’s interview platform to interview new candidates. You are consistently going through each question, listening intently to each answer, and carefully rating responses. But what are you actually listening for? How do you take subjective answers and make them objective, allowing you to compare apples to apples? 

Let’s investigate what employers are thinking when candidates are answering questions and how EasyHire can help incorporate these concepts in their interview process in a structured and objective manner.

  1. Likeability. Do I like this person? Will they get along with the rest of the team? Can I spend 8+ hours a day with them? What is the cultural fit? By including “cultural fit” and/or “likability” as measures on the scorecard, employers can rate candidates on a 5-star rating system.
  2. Genuineness. Is this person who they say they are? Do their experiences and language seem congruent with their application? Does the candidate genuinely want to work here? Can I trust this person? Ask in your interview process “Why do you want to work at Company X?” Genuineness can be measured from the candidate’s answer.
  3. Competency. Can the person do the job for which they are applying? Do they reference skills and knowledge relevant to the position? EasyHire.me allows employers to internally list skills, knowledge, and other competencies to be rated for each candidate in the platform, allowing for easy comparison of candidates.
  4. Positivity. Does the candidate seem to have a positive outlook? Do they speak poorly of their previous position or supervisors? When speaking of situations that didn’t go well, does the candidate focus on the negatives or do they express the things they learned to improve for next time? Include “positivity” as a measure or ask questions that get to the heart of a candidate’s outlook.
  5. Uniqueness. Is this candidate memorable (for the right reasons!)? Would they bring something new and different to the company? Are they better than the rest and stand out as someone you want on your team? Simply asking “tell me what makes you unique” or “why should we pick you out of all the other candidates” can yield some telling results related to uniqueness. Additionally, the way a candidate presents themselves, their variety of experiences, and how they tell a story might give them a 5-star rating in the “uniqueness” measure.
  6. Employer knowledge. Did the candidate spend the time to get to know the company and what they are about? Do they know the job description well and understand how they will contribute in the position? Do they reference company projects and initiatives while relating their skills? Including “employer research” as a measure can help employers compare candidates who took a cursory look at the website against those who really spent some time understanding what the company is about.

Although objective answers to questions in an interview are very important, subjective concepts, such as genuineness and uniqueness cannot be forgotten. Let EasyHire help you navigate both objective and subjective scores and find the best candidate for the position.

Why and how employers ask the questions they do

Why and how employers ask the questions they do

“Tell me about yourself”

“Why should we hire you?”

“Why is a manhole cover round?”*

“Tell us about a time you worked on a team that went better than expected and a time that went worse than expected”

“Please use the whiteboard to write the Java code for……”

There are many types of questions employers may ask in an interview and there are reasons for each:

  • Get to know you questions. These are asked with an intent of learning about the candidate, including their goals, education, and past experiences. Interviewers learn more about the candidate’s personality, their credentials, and motivation for interviewing.
  • Behavioral questions. Questions centered around past experiences or hypothetical situations have one goal in mind: past behavior predicts future behavior. If a candidate describes what they’ve done or would do in a situation that doesn’t mesh with the mindset of the company or the goals of the interviewer, there’s a good chance the interview process won’t move forward.
  • Brainteaser questions. You probably don’t know how many gas stations there are in the US (Microsoft interview question) or the annual revenue of the Starbucks in Times Square (Morgan Stanley interview question). Interviewers are less interested in the right answer, but more curious to know your creativity, thought process, and, perhaps most telling, your ability to think under pressure.
  • Technical questions. For candidates applying for technical positions, employers not only want to hear about knowledge, skills, and experiences relevant to the field, they want to see it with their own eyes. Candidates may be asked to code in Java or create something in Photoshop. EasyHire’s in-built code-editor makes it super easy to conduct technical interviews

Integrating the variety of questions in a meaningful and structured manner is important for both employer and candidate. EasyHire’s interview management system is one way to keep interviews on track.

Employers can structure interviews by specifying the skills, knowledge, and abilities required for the job. They formulate the evaluation criteria when compiling interview questions and a rating scale before the interview. Once the interview is in a process, employers ask questions while making notes and rating the candidates’ responses. Keeping questions consistent and structure is also important for employers because discrimination and hiring bias may be reduced, ensuring a more fair hiring process.

Candidates benefit from structured interviews in a number of ways as well. A candidate might feel the process is more professional and consistent when an employer uses EasyHire (don’t forget: interviews are also a time for a candidate to decide whether the employer is a good fit for them!). Additionally, one of the features of EasyHire, the interactive platform that puts the question on the screen, allows a candidate to read the question, reducing the chance of mishearing the question.

Although the interview process can be cumbersome and intimidating for both sides of the conference table, interview questions are a necessary way for employers to get to know a candidate beyond the information in a resume and cover letter. Do we like this person? Are they a good fit? Can they do the job? Pick the best candidate with EasyHire’s easy-to-use interview management platform.

*A manhole cover is round because it cannot fall through its circular opening and is easily moved and rolled.

How do you fight bias in your hiring process?

How do you fight bias in your hiring process?

Hiring bias is something that affects everyone whether you are a candidate being overlooked or an employer unconsciously making a biased hiring decision. Fighting bias is a choice and more companies are starting to make that choice in their recruitment process and reaping the rewards of a team built on diversity.

Hiring bias can take many forms: the way the job posting is written; the effect of the name, age, and pedigree of the applicant;  what questions are asked in the interview and more. Employers need to be aware of their hiring bias whether it is conscious or not while asking themselves the bigger question – what aspect of the company culture is fueling the hiring bias in the first place?

Today many resources are available to the companies to reduce unconscious biases which in turn will bring diversity into the workforce. EasyHire.me recognizes that the interview process is potentially the gateway to many of the biases that influence the hiring process which in turn shapes the company’s culture. EasyHire.me’s interview management platform helps employers to conduct a more consistent interview across all applicants ensuring that every candidate gets a fair chance. Hiring managers can create pre-defined questions to evaluate the candidates which help the interviewers to stay on track during the selection process, put their biases aside and discover the best candidates.

In technology industries specifically, knowledge and skills create a strong candidate. Many a times employers have been less likely to interview a female candidate, an LGBTQ-identified applicant, an older applicant due to biases of who should “represent” the tech world. EasyHire.me’s interviewing tools and processes can help companies take the first step forward in hiring people based on “who can do the job well” and not “who they are”. This will not only help the companies find strong candidates but also bring diversity to the workplace. In a time of a technology boom, combined with an increasingly diverse community of technical applicants, it is important to face hiring bias and stop denying it exists.

Integrated code-editor for technical interviews

Integrated code-editor for technical interviews

EasyHire.me provides an integrated code editor for conducting effective technical interviews.  The candidates can choose to code in their favorite coding language (C/C++, Java, Javascript, Python, Perl etc.) using the inbuilt code-editor. Whether it is an on-demand or live interview, the ability to write code, compile, and test all  in one place makes it easy for the candidates to display their programming strength.

EasyHire.me tags the code snippet along with the question and makes it available to the hiring team as part of the interview report. Below is the screenshot of the interview report of a candidate. Note that you can look at the interview question, listen to the candidate’s response, and review the coding skills, all at the same time.

Screen Shot 2016-04-29 at 1.51.38 PM

With EasyHire.me, you can effectively pre-screen technical talent much earlier in your hiring cycle.

Structured interview – an easy upgrade to your hiring process

Structured interview – an easy upgrade to your hiring process

1. Understand the job requirement

Specifying the job requirements clearly is the first step in the hiring process. Not only can it help dictate the open dialogue between you as an interviewer and the candidate, but also save your staffing team valuable time in their sourcing efforts.

Writing a good job description requires an understanding of company’s roadmap and timeline, both from a business and product perspective. In other words, address today’s needs, while also envisioning what the role would be a year from now.

For example, let’s say, you are looking to hire a Sales Development Representative. Your current need may be to generate more leads and revenue. However, you envision this hire to transition into a marketing role down the road. What would be the job requirements? Are you looking for someone to setup drip campaign or are you someone to do social marketing,

It may be wise to create a generic job description that emphasizes on expectations and accountabilities, rather than specific tasks, thereby encouraging employees to focus on results rather than job duties. We would suggest that you understand the role and responsibilities and write a more wide-ranging job description. A little extra time spent in compiling a good job description would help your recruiting teams efforts in finding the right candidate, faster!

2. Identify the key competencies 

Identify the most important competencies that should be evaluated during the interview. Define the key competencies that are must have and good to have. It is important that the hiring team understand the skills that are important for the job. Ideally, it would be great to get a candidate who has all the desired key competencies but most often you have limited time and so would have to compromise and pick the best available candidate. It would be helpful if the team has a prioritized list of key competencies that you are looking for in the candidates. Next step is to develop a list of questions to evaluate the competencies. Three to six competencies are typically assessed, and one to three questions might be developed around each competencies.

3. Develop questions around each competency

The next step is to develop questions to evaluate each of the identified competencies. All candidates should be asked a similar set of questions to bring consistency in the interview and evaluation process. For example, a key competency for manager often entails the ability to resolve differences within the team. Plan on asking questions that would give an insight on the candidate’s approach in solving such conflicts. The questions may include something like “Describe a time when you had conflicting ideas about the strategy of a project. Describe the situation? How did you help the team to resolve this conflict?” If it is a software engineering position which requires specific language skills, plan to have a specific question on coding that entails the candidate to write a snippet of code.

4. Define the metric scale 

Metrics are essential in today’s labor force. Not only do they help gauge overall performance, but can also be the driving factor for making hiring decisions. As you structure your interview process, it is important to identify the types of specific behaviors and descriptors that can be used to evaluate the candidate’s actions. These anchors are typically developed around a three or five-point scale. Define the metric scale and format to capture the factors that are important to the job position as well as for the company. Next, define the standards for rating so that all the evaluation across interviewers are normalized. Here are two factors to keep in mind:

  • Relevant metrics to a role: Measure a candidate on similar metrics to what their role entails. For example, if you are interviewing a Marketing candidate, your objective may be to read a sample writing a piece on the spot.
  • Qualitative vs. Quantitative: Being able to reduce subjectivity in the interview process is important. We are a product of our environment and as such, do bring our personal biases in the hiring process. We can reduce these biases by quantifying the candidates on the set of objectives with a well defined metric scale 

In the end, a structured approach to interviewing and decision-making process will help you in scaling the team, faster.

What type of interviewer are you?

What type of interviewer are you?

Interviewing is an art! It is a self taught skill that you need to learn and master yourself.  There is no clear-cut course that teaches you how to be a good interviewer. An effective interviewer makes their candidate feel comfortable and relaxed to bring the best out of them in order to ascertain what skills they can bring to the table. They inspire the candidate to want to be part of their initiative and engage them in introspective discussions. They make the candidate contemplate on how they can improve themselves and their peers.

You can be more successful as an interviewer by being conscious as to whom you are interviewing. Before commencing the interview, first establish the role and the job you are interviewing the candidate for. Are you interviewing for a customer facing role or a product development role? Additionally, while interviewing, be aware of the type of person you are talking to. Are you talking to a fresh graduate or an industry veteran? Would the candidate be reporting to you or would he be joining the team as your peer? These are but few of the factors that you should consider before initiating the interview. By analyzing and deciding all of these factors, you can pick a candidate who is best suitable for your work style and the job at hand, and hopefully, a long-term contributor to your company.

Here are some crucial qualities that you can pick from as the interviewer:

  • Assertive: If you are going to be their manager, establish the company’s hierarchy and accountability in a positive manner. Act like his manager and give the candidate a realistic glimpse on how you see them fitting in your company.
  • Collaborative: If you are interviewing your peer, solve problems together with the candidate. Your interview should aim in not only finding out how suitable the candidate is for the job but also how good it is to work with him.
  • Inquisitive: If you are interviewing your boss, talk about his vision and plans for the company and evaluate if he has the abilities to execute on them. Share your passion and commitment towards the job and find out if they are aligned with his.

Your evaluation on the candidate should depend on the interview session. If you were a tough interviewer, go easy on the evaluation. If you were collaborative and friendly, be tough on the evaluation. Finally, the choice is yours to pick a persona and conduct the interview accordingly.  Plan ahead – study the candidate, choose the appropriate persona, and provide a rounded, insightful evaluation on the candidate.

Benefits of a Structured Interview

Benefits of a Structured Interview

Has anyone in the history of hiring ever employed anyone without conducting some type of interview? Seriously doubt it! Interview is an important process when you decide whether to allow the “outsider” into the “family” or not. There have been volumes written about how the first five minutes of an interview decide whether you get the job or not. Instead of collecting objective data, the hiring decisions are influenced by gut feelings of the interviewer.

…“the first five minutes” of an interview are what really matter, describing how interviewers make initial assessments and spend the rest of the interview working to confirm those assessments. So, if they like you, they look for reasons to like you more. If they don’t like your handshake or the awkward introduction, then the interview is essentially over because they spend the rest of the meeting looking for reasons to reject you. –  Lazlo Bock, Google’s Senior Vice President of People Operations

Let’s understand the goal of interview process. It is to achieve a good fit between the people and the jobs.  The interview process determines how the candidate will perform once they join the team.  So it is important that the selection process is based on a scientific approach and not on gut feelings. Scientific approach involves administering a structured interview where the knowledge, skills and abilities required for the job are assessed in a systematic manner across candidates.

“The interview structure, an interviewer’s experience and the number of people being interviewed in succession all play a role in the decision making on a job candidate,”  said Patrick Raymark, psychology department chair at Clemson University.

A good interview process involves collecting unbiased data on the candidates that enables the hiring manager to make the right hire. To make such critical decision, the interview process should aim to collect data that assures that the person is the best fit. Unfortunately, most interviews predict an applicant’s actual ability only between 1% to 4% accuracy.  This can be minimized and almost eliminated by adopting a structured interview approach.

What is a Structured Interview Process?

  • Before the interview – Plan end to end. Post the job and source the candidates. Before interviewing, define the evaluation criteria and rating scales. Put together a set of appropriate interview questions for assessing the candidates.
  • During the interview – Conduct an engaged interview session. Ask each candidate the same set of questions in the same order if possible. Take detailed interview notes for each question. Use the evaluation criteria and scale to rate the candidate’s response.
  • After the interview – Compare all the candidates interviewed by all the interviewers. Analyze the interviews and ratings and normalize the evaluation data across interviewers. Then, make a data-driven decision on who best fits the role.

On the onset, structured interviews seem tedious but in reality it is a highly effective hiring process. Adopting an end-to-end structured approach shortens the overall hiring time.

The best part of the structured interview is that it is effective, consistent and fair. All candidates go through the same process, are treated objectively and asked the same set of questions. Each interviewer is focused in asking the relevant set of questions and evaluates the candidates based on the job criteria.  Since the hiring managers have the same set of  information for every candidate, the hiring decisions are made faster and with greater confidence.