Mastering the Interview: Popular Techniques for HR Professionals

Interviewing is a critical step in the hiring process, as it allows HR, staffing, and recruiting professionals to assess a candidate’s skills, qualifications, and cultural fit. Over the years, various interviewing techniques have been developed to help interviewers make more informed hiring decisions. In this blog, we will discuss some popular interviewing techniques and their benefits.

Behavioral Interviewing

Description: Behavioral interviewing involves asking candidates to describe past situations or experiences that demonstrate their skills and abilities. Interviewers ask questions that prompt candidates to share specific examples of how they handled situations in the past.

Benefit: This technique helps interviewers assess a candidate’s past behavior as a predictor of their future performance. It can provide insights into a candidate’s problem-solving, teamwork, and communication skills.

Situational Interviewing

Description: Situational interviewing involves asking candidates how they would handle hypothetical situations related to the job. Interviewers present scenarios that the candidate may encounter in the role and ask them to describe how they would respond.

Benefit: This technique helps interviewers assess a candidate’s problem-solving abilities, decision-making skills, and adaptability. It can provide insights into how a candidate may handle challenges in the future.

Structured Interviewing

Description: Structured interviewing involves asking all candidates the same set of questions in the same order. Interviewers use a predetermined list of questions and a standardized scoring system to evaluate candidates’ responses.

Benefit: This technique helps reduce interviewer bias and ensures a fair and consistent evaluation process. It can also make it easier to compare candidates’ responses.

Unstructured Interviewing

Description: Unstructured interviewing involves having a more informal and open-ended conversation with the candidate. Interviewers may have a general list of topics to cover but do not follow a strict script or question order.

Benefit: This technique allows for a more natural and relaxed conversation, which can help interviewers build rapport with candidates and assess their interpersonal skills.

Panel Interviewing

Description: Panel interviewing involves having multiple interviewers conduct the interview simultaneously. Each interviewer may ask questions related to their area of expertise or interest.

Benefit: This technique allows interviewers to assess a candidate from multiple perspectives and can provide a more comprehensive evaluation of the candidate’s skills and qualifications.

Stress Interviewing

Description: Stress interviewing involves intentionally creating a stressful or challenging situation during the interview to assess how the candidate handles pressure. This may involve asking difficult questions, interrupting the candidate, or presenting challenging scenarios.

Benefit: This technique helps interviewers assess a candidate’s resilience, composure, and problem-solving abilities under pressure.

Case Interviewing

Description: Case interviewing involves presenting candidates with a business problem or case study and asking them to analyze the situation and propose a solution. Candidates may be asked to work through the case on their own or as part of a group.

Benefit: This technique helps interviewers assess a candidate’s analytical, problem-solving, and teamwork skills.

Mastering the Interview

In conclusion, there are various interviewing techniques that HR, staffing, and recruiting professionals can use to assess candidates’ skills and qualifications. By selecting the appropriate interviewing technique for the role and the competencies being assessed, interviewers can make more informed hiring decisions and select the best candidates for the job.