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Recruitment

Best practice for recruitment interviews

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:15

After our very positive response to our article on recruitment interviews, we have some ideas on how to establish Best Practice Recruitment Procedures in your workplace.

The object of the exercise is to ensure that your organisation will be able to attract the most competent and best quality recruits - to ensure that your organisation becomes an employer of choice.

Pre-Interview Preparation

Confirming details of the interview

Ensure that every applicant invited to attend an interview has a document confirming the date, time and venue of the interview. Give the company name, the full street address and the website address.

Give a name, job title, and telephone number of the person to contact for more information.

Develop a standard map for directions to your site, including the various alternative routes which applicants might take. As not everyone is confident with map-reading, include written descriptions for each of the routes.

Ensure that everyone uses the same map and directions. In addition to the various people or sections within the HR department, give a copy to the receptionist, the telephonist, the security guard, and anyone else who might receive a call from someone who has become lost on the way.

If there is visitor parking, and parking is a problem at your site, ensure that sufficient places are left for the applicants’ to park. Sometimes applicants will have someone drive them to the site and the driver may then wait in the parking place, so it is advisable to ensure at least 2 or 3 places are made available and kept free.

Do not allow employees of the company to park their vehicles in the visitor parking.

If there are specific instructions regarding parking, ensure that you include the instructions in the letter giving details of the interview.

Give as much detail as possible about the interview:– will it be a panel interview, who will be the interviewer/s, what are their names and job titles, and what is the expected duration of the interview?

On Interview Day

On the day, if there are going to be a number of applicants arriving, draw up a list of the applicants’ names, and the time of their interview. Give a copy of the list to the security guard, the receptionist, and anyone else who might be involved in receiving the applicants.

As it is possible that applicants might know each other, if the logistics exist, once applicants have been interviewed, take them out of a different door to the reception area through which they entered.

This will avoid potential embarrassment to applicants from the same company or organisation.

Brief the various company personnel on how to welcome and address the applicant, and ensure that they practice difficult or unfamiliar names.

Ensure that there will be a place to sit for those who arrive early and that they will be offered something to drink, and also shown where the nearest toilets are – before they ask.

Have company and industry magazines, marketing leaflets of company products, in-house magazines detailing company employee activities, social club activities, and training successes available to read.

Place Company awards in the reception area.

If there is going to be a delay in the interview, advise the applicant what the delay is and ask them whether there are any arrangements or calls that they need to make as a result.