Many people who are interviewing for the first time are probably more nervous than the candidate, in case they get the procedure wrong or end up appointing the wrong candidate.
One of the most difficult skills to master is listening intently while scoring the candidate and making notes to remind yourself later what they actually said. In larger organisations, there will be an HR representative on the panel, but in smaller businesses, it may be down to one or at most two people.
Here are some pointers to ensure that you finish up with an accurate idea of each candidate's suitability and some evidence to back up your decision in case there are queries later.
Know equality law before you embark on an interview
Hopefully, you are going into the interview with an understanding of equality law, otherwise you are laying yourself and the business open to lawsuits. You cannot ask young women, for example, whether they intend to have children. There are numerous other examples in which the question could be interpreted as unfair, and could land you in legal trouble. If you don't have this knowledge, you need to take a crash course either by reading Internet sites or going on a one-day briefing before you undertake interviews.
Get your scoring grid ready
You can avoid a lot of the equality issues if you ensure that you have a standard set of questions and ask each candidate the same questions. Then you can score the candidates according to their responses and afterwards you'll have some evidence of why you chose the successful candidate.
Put candidates at their ease and prepare them for the interview
Always start by saying hello and shaking hands. Ask the candidate if they'd like water or perhaps coffee. Spend a couple of minutes talking about whether they had a good journey or commenting on the weather - the more boring the better really, because you are trying to give the candidate time to settle down.
It’s helpful to introduce yourself and the other interviewers by name and job title. If each member of the panel is going to be asking questions about something different, tell the candidate this. If there will be an opportunity at the end for them to question the interviewers, you can mention this as well.
Start with an easy question
The worst interviews, from the employer’s point of view, are those where it's very difficult to get anything out of the interviewee. This can be because of poor communication skills, but it can also be that the candidate is suddenly overcome with nervousness. So you want to get them talking and the best way to do this is to start with easy and obvious questions and only get to the more difficult ones as the interview progresses.
Open questions only
You probably don't need telling that all questions should be open. So you should never say, "How long did you work at such and such agency?" A nervous or uncommunicative candidate can legitimately answer that in two words, which doesn't leave you much further on. The open version of this question might be, "Can you tell us about your time at such and such agency?"
It’s mutual
Never forget that while you are appraising a candidate, they are forming judgements about you and your business. The most promising candidate may end up with more than one offer. Make sure that yours is the one they go for, because they enjoyed meeting you at interview.
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