Conversational Interviewing: Modernize Your Effective Approach To Hiring
In general, the whole concept of a typical job interview format is intrusive, artificial and one-sided in favor of the employer. Consequently, candidates have repetitively gone through a similar interview session and have formulated common responses to standard questions.
What are most common interview questions?
Tell Me About Yourself
Why Should We Hire You?
What Are Your Greatest Strengths?
What Do You Consider to Be Your Weaknesses?
As candidates have a much wider choice in where they choose to work, it is vital that you consider restructuring your approach to hiring: conversational interviewing, in this competitive labor market.
So, instead of asking the same sort job interview questions, start asking questions worthy of thoughtful answers.
What is conversational interviewing?
Conversational interviewing is all about the candidates having a real, less-structured conversation with the recruiters/hiring managers such as yourself. It's a two-way conversation where questions and information are freely exchanged between the employer and the candidate.
Why?
Truthful answers - Interviews are your greatest chance to get to know a candidate and determine if they’re the person you’re looking for your team. So, don't get it squandered. Conversational questions set the candidates up to express who they really are.
More flexibility - Candidates will be given a chance to ask insightful questions to the interviewer, and you, as the recruiter or hiring manager should be prepared to provide information about the role, the organizational culture and the selection process moving forward.
Transforming your way of asking questions!
It begins with changing the way you ask questions. You can get better insights into the candidate’s experience, goals, expectations and fit for the role by slightly tweaking the way you frame the interview questions.
Need some thoughts? Here you go!
OLD WAY: | TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF |
NEW WAY: | WHO DO YOU ADMIRE AMONG THOSE THAT YOU'VE WORKED WITH, AND WHY? |
What they admire in others tells you a lot about what they find significant. It's a revealing glimpse into the characteristics he/she seeks to cultivate himself/herself.
OLD WAY: | WHAT ARE YOUR GREATEST STRENGTHS? |
NEW WAY | WHAT’S YOUR SUPERPOWER AND HOW WILL THAT SPECIFICALLY HELP YOU IN THIS ROLE? |
As a hiring manager, it’s crucial to help candidates flex what they’re really superior at (something you don’t already know), instead of just trying to figure out the areas they’re battling with.
OLD WAY: | WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST WEAKNESS? |
NEW WAY | TELL ME ABOUT A TIME YOU MADE A MISTAKE OR FAILED AT SOMETHING. AND, WHAT DID YOU LEARNT FROM THIS EXPERIENCE? |
What’s the possibility they’ll genuinely share with you if you directly ask them about their deficiencies? Because, after all, they want to be hired for the job. So, I like this question (new way) because it allows hiring managers to evaluate their well-honed habit of looking objectively at a problem and talking openly about what improvements they’ll bring to their next role.
OLD WAY: | WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN THE NEXT 5 YEARS? |
NEW WAY | WHAT YOU WANT TO DO DIFFERENTLY IN YOUR NEXT JOB? |
After all, you’ll be hiring the present-day version of this person, not their future self. So, try to unpack their career path and job search towards their current path goals.
OLD WAY: | WHY SHOULD WE HIRE YOU? |
NEW WAY | WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE YOU CAN ACHIEVE WITH US PERSONALLY OR PROFESSIONALLY? |
This way, the candidate is able to articulate his/her aspirations, individual motivations & his/her commitments towards your mission in a clearer & bigger picture. This helps establishing that your company will be a great platform for the person to thrive and how you can help him/her attain them, you are one step closer to closing her.
We believe this compilation serves as a valuable stepping stone that you can optimize as you design your own interview questions to give your approach a refresh. As a Workforce Solutions Company with over 22 years of hiring experience, we help employers to streamline their overall hiring process, and attract the best candidates for their team.
Simply get in touch today and a member of our expert team will gladly contact you for a chat!
Posted by:
Yogakumari Sankar- Prospect & Content Development Executive