Recruitment Tips: 5 Skills Interviewers Should Master - Advance Career

Annie Papadopoulou

Advice, Agency, Interviews, Recruitment Mar 15, 2024 0

Recruitment Tips: 5 Skills Interviewers Should Master

Advance Career as a recruitment agency in Cyprus knows well that unlocking the potential of top talent begins with the art of the interview. Of course, the selection starts a lot earlier, but the interview is the stage that both company and candidate will find out if they are the right fit for each other.

As gatekeepers to a company’s success, interviewers hold the key to identifying the perfect match for each role. But what sets apart an average interviewer from an exceptional one? Continue reading this blog post to learn the five essential skills that every interviewer should master, unveiling the secrets to conducting insightful, impactful interviews.

Active Listening:

Interviewers need to listen to the candidate’s responses, understand their perspectives, and pick up on any nuances or additional information they provide that may be significant for the position. This ability is really important as the interviewer will be able to form an opinion about the candidate and other relevant questions.

Active listening involves focusing on what the candidate is saying without interrupting, confirming with paraphrasing to ensure understanding, and asking relevant follow-up questions. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that active listening is often accompanied by non-verbal cues such as nodding, smiling, making eye contact and leaning forward to show your interest. Active listening is also important because it makes candidates to relax and feel that the other person understands what they are saying.

Empathy:

Empathy is vital for an interviewer to understand the candidate. An empathetic interviewer can make candidates feel comfortable and valued, providing a positive interview experience. Interviewers should be able to understand and relate to the candidate’s experiences, emotions, perspectives, fostering a safe environment for honest communication.

Interviewers that fail to relate to the candidate, they lose the ability to understand them, if they come off as strict and cold, most certainly the candidate will feel uncomfortable or nervous. In one of our previous post, we discussed why is important to provide a good interview experience to candidates and maintain good company image.

Critical Thinking:

It is a vital for interviewers to be able to combine empathy along with their ability to use critical thinking. Apart from making candidates feel comfortable, interviews should assist if this person is the right candidate for the position or if they will fit in the company’s culture and ethics.

Interviewers should use their critical thinking to evaluate the responses of the candidates and assist of how truthful their answers are. If they spot any inconsistencies in the candidate’s answers, they should be able to clarify and make the right judgement if the individual is suitable for the position.

Effective Questioning Techniques:

Interviewers should not only ask questions, they should ask the right questions. Most times, interviewers have less than an hour to find out if the candidate is the right choice for the company and the role. It is crucial to be able to ask the right questions to find this valuable information.

Interviewers that ask irrelevant questions waste their time and the candidate’s. The interviewer should be able to form clear and open-ended questions for the candidate to reply. Moreover, the interviewer should try to specify or ask for more information if something the candidate said is interesting or important for the position.

Adaptability:

Sometimes, even for the same position, not every interview needs to be identical because there is an entirely different person in front of you. The interviewer should be able to adapt to the candidate’s communication style. Moreover, to effectively inquire about their backgrounds, they need to be able to adapt and customize their standard questions to gain deeper insight and better understanding of the candidate.

Adaptability is crucial in considering the level of experience the candidate has acquired. The interviewer should realize that they may need to be more flexible with a young candidate who may lack interview experience, rather than a senior candidate who will adapt easily to their style.

Final Thoughts

In the competitive landscape of recruitment, mastering the key skills mentioned above is important for both hiring the right candidate and sustain the good image of the organization. These skills should be learned and put into practice by all the members of the HR department, but also any person that would have to interact with a potential candidate during the interview process.

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