By Helenna Bell, Associate Director
Unstructured interviews feel natural. They are also a poor predictor of job performance.
When interviewers ask different questions to different candidates, follow instinct about who they like, and rely on gut feel, they introduce bias and inconsistency into a decision with significant consequences. Structured interviews, where every candidate is asked the same questions and assessed against consistent criteria, produce better hiring decisions and are fairer to candidates.
Before writing a single question, be clear on what you are actually assessing. What are the three or four most important capabilities this person needs? What does strong performance look like in this role at the twelve-month mark?
Write down the specific competencies that matter most: commercial judgement, technical knowledge, stakeholder management, leadership under pressure, whatever is most relevant. Every interview question you write should map to one of those competencies.
Competency-based questions ask candidates to give real examples from their experience. They follow the format 'Tell me about a time when...' or 'Give me an example of...' and are more reliable than hypothetical questions because they are based on what someone has actually done, not what they say they would do.
'Tell me about a time you had to influence a decision without direct authority' gives you far more useful information than 'Are you good at influencing people?'
Prepare five to eight core questions and use them consistently across all candidates. That gives you a like-for-like basis for comparison.
Once you have your questions, create a simple scoring approach. For each question, decide in advance what a strong, acceptable, and weak answer looks like. A three-point scale with brief notes on what each score represents is enough.
Score candidates immediately after the interview while the conversation is fresh. Written scores are far more reliable than memory, particularly across multiple candidates over several days.
Silence is not a problem in an interview. If a candidate needs a moment before answering, let them have it. Jumping in before they have collected their thoughts adds pressure that helps no one.
If a candidate gives a brief answer, follow up with 'Can you tell me more about that?' or 'What was the outcome?' Probing questions help you get past rehearsed responses and understand how someone actually thinks.
Candidates are assessing the role and the organisation just as you are assessing them. Build in time to tell them what the role is genuinely like: the challenges, the pace, the dynamics of the team.
Candidates who join with an honest picture of what they are walking into are more likely to stay. Overselling a role to fill it quickly almost always costs more in the long run.
Strong candidates move fast. If you are taking three weeks to debrief after interviews, you will lose the best people to employers who make decisions more quickly.
Schedule your debrief before the interviews take place so the process has a clear structure from the outset. If you have used a scoring framework, the debrief should focus on evaluating evidence rather than general impressions.
For support with interview design, candidate assessment, and shortlisting, Elevation works with businesses across the region. Submit a vacancy at https://www.elevationrecruitmentgroup.com/vacancy-registration
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