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Interview guide

First-class interviewing techniques are essential as a thorough interview can tell you almost everything you need to know about a candidate and this will increase your quality of employees by recruiting the top talent.

Atomic's Interview Guide can be used to complement your current techniques and enhance the quality of your interviews:

1) Planning for the interview

Review the CV/Resume and your recruitment consultant's synopsis.
Consider whether you want to use tests e.g. skills testing or psychometric testing and plan ahead with your recruitment consultant to schedule them in.
Plan privacy and ensure you are not interrupted.
To identify essential from non-essential criteria and define the exact specifications for the role, be clear about your objectives and discuss the requirements of the role in depth with your consultant.

2) Putting the candidate at ease

Explain the structure of the interview and indicate how long it will last.
Consider that the candidate might be nervous causing possible 'odd' behaviour.
Encourage the individual to talk rather than a strict question and answer format.
Try to put the candidate at ease practice active listening and take notes.
If in doubt over their performance, cross-check with your recruitment consultant.
Provide honest information about the company, its culture and the role.
Explain the next stage of the selection process.
Refer the candidate to your Atomic Recruitment consultant for post-interview follow-up.

3) Finding the best people

In addition, in-house managers or even human resources, no matter how effective, view the marketplace through a bias that comes with the territory. They are vulnerable to the pressures of internal politics and cultural dimensions which do not hinder the outsider. Recruiters are in the employment marketplace day in and day out. They know where to find the hidden talent which will never be accessed by newspaper ads, applicant databases, the Internet or any of the other more familiar sources of people. For the same reasons, outside recruiters can also provide a much more realistic view of the marketplace than an in-house manager, who would just not have that insight, by virtue of his or her professional orientation.

4) The value of a professional recruiter

Every business agrees that one well-placed employee can be a significant cause of a major increase in a company's profits. Therefore the fee for having hired these people becomes insignificant when compared to the contributions they make to the bottom line. Of course recruiting fees can vary but almost always those on the low side are sure to exclude some very key ingredients of the process, all of which are vital to providing the best possible short list of 'talent' available.

5) Non-discriminatory recruitment

There is a range of legislation that governs what questions may and may not be asked during an interview. These rules apply to either oral or written questions. Whilst it is mostly common sense, we strongly recommend you look at Atomic's Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Policy and if you are in doubt about whether a question or a group of questions is illegal, you should consult www.hreoc.gov.au or your legal representative.

6) Listening & recording responses

Take notes during the interview, as you will invariably only remember what you want to remember.
Ensure the record is factual, i.e. a record of what the applicant said and did in the interview or at work, not how you felt about what they said
Don't assume, ask more questions to check your understanding
Without notes it is very difficult to distinguish between one person and another.
The result is that you may end up employing the wrong person
Concentrate on your applicant. Make sure there are no distractions which can lure your mind away, even for a moment
Judge what is being said, not just how it is being said
Listen for ideas and concepts, not just facts. Remember, the same words can be said in different ways to convey totally different messages, so search for the underlying meaning and keep an open mind

7) Gaining behavioural examples

A behavioural example is defined as an individual's description of a real life event which contains reference to names, dates, numbers, times and locations. It contains information about a person's actions in a real situation. It is not imaginary or hypothetical.

The behavioural interview technique is used to evaluate a candidate's experiences and behaviours in order to determine their potential for success. The interviewer identifies desired skills and behaviours, then structures open-ended questions and statements to elicit detailed responses. In order to gain behavioural examples you can ask questions that phrased in a certain way, such as:

Give me an example of ...
Tell me about a time when ...
Describe a situation in which you ...

Atomic Consultants are trained in behavioural interviewing techniques and would be able to help your business select the best people for your position. Contact us for more information.