Interview Process Best Practices

Are you bringing in talent only to find out down the line that they are the wrong fit? The problem might not be with the candidates, but, rather, the approach you take to interviewing during the hiring process. Great agency management hinges on having a strong team that can effectively carry out your strategy and help you meet your goals. To build that team, follow these three interview process best practices to help you crush your hiring. 

Before the Interviews

Before you get to interviewing, you have to make sure your jobs are getting in front of every possible potential candidate. The more people you can get into your sourcing funnel, the better. You might be a little concerned that you won’t have time to balance day-to-day agency management with screening all these candidates, but our best practices will help you drastically cut down your applicant pool so you’re only spending time on candidates that are good for you. 

Assess as a Filter

You don’t have time to waste on taking chances that a candidate can make it through the interview process but lack the core competencies to do the job. Create a 10-12 question test to assess the technical skills required for the role and build it into the early part of the application or screening process. 80% of applicants won’t take the test, and even less will pass. The candidates that remain are much more likely to be successful in the job. 

Frame Your Questions in Future Tense

We’ve all been asked the “tell me a time when…” question during a job interview. Candidates can answer those questions and tell you what they think you want to hear. Instead, focus on questions that ask the candidate how they might respond in a future situation. As an example, ask the candidate how they might react if they receive an urgent request from a client at 4 p.m. on Friday when they’re due for a dinner reservation in two hours.

Answers to these types of questions will give you some insight into the candidate’s thought process and let you know if they align to your core values. It is a good agency management approach to create an SOP around interview questions. 

Create a Candidate Score Sheet

While you’re interviewing, use a score sheet to create a scalable process and ensure a candidate is a good hire or not. Assign a point value for each answer and assign a threshold a candidate must meet to move on in your hiring process. This minimizes cognitive bias and helps ensure you get the best people on your team. 

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