Tailoring the perfect fit: Unleashing the power of customised interview services
Data reveals that GDP growth in YOY (year-over-year) terms is likely to dip by 1.5 per cent. A decline in GDP growth is expected to lead to a hiring slowdown as businesses adjust to declining profits.
This will give employers leverage in negotiations with recruiters. But despite this advantage, hiring top talent continues to remain a challenge. This is because organisations are trying their best to retain quality hires and trends indicate that candidates are less likely to switch jobs in a volatile market.
The recruitment landscape has undergone a complete transformation in the past few years. The shortage of skilled candidates has created an imbalance between the in-demand skills and the number of candidates who possess those skills.
Today, skills have become more important than experience in hiring.
Hence, designing recruitment strategies that are aligned with the specific job role has become more important than ever before. Recruitment strategies also need to meet the rising demands of candidates.
Changing candidate demands
In the recent past, the candidate experience was characterised by a relationship where the recruiter had the upper hand. The job market had more candidates than available jobs. Hence, employers could afford to be indifferent.
As it happens, the tables have turned over the last few years! Today, candidates with in-demand skills are sought after by multiple employers. Hence, it comes as no surprise that candidates with the right skills have become more demanding than ever before.
To meet the rising candidate demands, recruiters need to focus on brand building and communicating their brand story to candidates through the channels where they exist.
Talent can come from various sources like campus recruitment, cloud resources built on referrals, etc. To tap top talent from these sources, recruiters need to connect through these sources with meaningful conversations.
Well, sourcing candidates is just the beginning! The hiring process includes several steps like candidate screening, skill tests, interviews with candidates, onboarding and much more.
One of the critical stages in the hiring process is the candidate interview. If conducted effectively, interviews could reveal several details about the candidate. The recruiter can assess a candidate’s skill sets, communication skills, critical thinking, cultural fit and more through a well-structured interview.
How interviews are conducted
A few years ago, virtual hiring and remote working were unheard of. However, after the pandemic, they have become commonplace. Technological interventions have paved the way for refining virtual hiring processes.
One of the key aspects of the hiring process is interviewing, which could be online, offline or a mix of both.
Let us dig a little deeper into how the interview process has evolved over the years!
The traditional interview process involved a one-on-one conversation between the candidate and the hiring manager. The hiring manager would ask questions related to the qualifications and experience of the candidate to assess their fitment. Candidate screening was done based on the resumes and cover letters submitted by the prospects.
The problem with this method of interviewing was that it did not help in a comprehensive evaluation of the candidate. Moreover, the traditional process required several rounds of interviews, which wasted the time and resources of both the candidates and recruiters. Besides, traditional interviewing required the candidates to face a panel of interviewers who asked questions to assess their capabilities. This approach added to the stress for the candidate.
It is because of these and other reasons that businesses today are leveraging technology to streamline and enhance the interview process. In today’s digital era, online applications and digital resumes have become the norm. This has eased the job of recruiters, who do not have to sift through stacks of physical documents as they can scan resumes online and shortlist candidates based on specific criteria.
Hiring platforms like HirePro provide an automated ATS (Application Tracking System) that speeds up the process of filtering candidates based on experience, qualifications and other relevant criteria.
Technology has ushered in a new era of video interviews. Video interviews have become extremely popular among recruiters and candidates because they save time and resources for both. They not only help candidates showcase their communication skills and personalities but also enable recruiters to assess non-verbal cues and body language.
Video interviews enable recruiters to include assessments and skill tests in the interview process as well.
However, traditional and standardised video interviews do not accurately reveal the true attributes of the candidates. This is one of the reasons that recruiters are now focusing on personalising the interview experience for candidates. Also, recruitment of top talent requires offering an interview experience that is tailored to the needs of the candidate.
Customised interviews align with the unique needs of every organisation and the role. Unlike generic interview questions, a personalised approach facilitates a more accurate assessment of the abilities of the candidate, which increases the likelihood of recruiting the ideal candidate for the role.
Why recruiters need to customise interviews
Compared to a generic interview, customised interviews dive deeper into the candidate’s qualifications and suitability for a specific role. They evaluate candidates based on the distinct requirements of the job and the organisational culture.
Customised interviews incorporate a wide variety of assessment methods such as scenario-based queries, role-playing exercises or practical tasks, which mirror real-life work situations. These tests offer insights into the problem-solving skills of the candidate, their critical thinking abilities, communication skills and so on.
Behavioural assessments and personality tests, which are part of customised interviews, help in evaluating the soft skills and cultural fit of candidates.
You can also assess the compatibility of a candidate with team dynamics and corporate culture through customised interviews. This minimises the risk of hiring candidates who are not the right fit.
Customising interviews streamlines the evaluation process by focusing on the most relevant aspects of the candidate’s profile. This speeds up the recruitment process while minimising resource utilisation.
By customising interviews according to a specific job role, you can minimise unconscious bias in hiring, which helps recruit diverse candidates.
Customised interviews also provide a great candidate experience. They give the candidate an opportunity to showcase their skills and discuss their experiences in a meaningful manner. These aspects make the candidate feel more valued and motivate them to give their best performance.
A great interview experience enhances employer branding.
How to customise interviews
Establish your recruitment goals
The first step in personalising interviews is to define what you expect to achieve through the interview process. You need to have clarity on aspects like core competencies, values and expectations for the role. Ascertain how you expect to align your personalisation strategy with your company’s vision, mission and goals. These factors will help you develop a well-defined framework that will avoid irrelevant, discriminatory or inappropriate questions.
Find out more about the candidate
To create a personalised interview experience for a candidate, you will need to research the candidate. Collect data about the candidate from sources like resumes, portfolios, cover letters or social media profiles. Analyse the candidate data to identify their interests, motivations, skills and background. These data points will help you build a customised interview experience for the candidate.
Put the candidate at ease
It is a good idea to adapt your style to that of the candidate without compromising on professionalism and objectivity. You can build an engaging and comfortable interview experience with the help of techniques like rapport building, storytelling, active listening, etc. Boost the candidate experience by adjusting your tone, pace and language to align with that of the candidate.
Provide feedback
Provide constructive feedback to the candidates to help them reinforce their strengths and address their weaknesses while clarifying your expectations. You can also ask the candidate for their feedback to help improve your interviewing skills.
Assess your results
Use techniques like rating scales, rubrics or notes to record and compare the performance and fitment. Make sure that your assessment is fair, objective, transparent and consistent.
How hiring platforms facilitate customisation of interviews
AI (Artificial Intelligence)–powered hiring platforms have become extremely popular in recent times because of the multiple benefits they offer.
AI brings a high level of efficiency, objectivity and comprehensive evaluation to the interview process. Hiring platforms automate tasks like resume screening, candidate shortlisting and other routine processes, leading to time and cost savings.
AI algorithms scrutinise candidate answers to refine the candidate pool before in-person interviews.
Many hiring platforms leverage Gen AI. AI-powered bots ask relevant questions to assess the domain knowledge of the candidate. The technology is adaptive and adjusts the difficulty level of the questions according to the responses provided by the candidate. That is, they ask the next question based on the response of the candidate.
Thus, hiring platforms are highly effective in tailoring the interview process to the potential of the candidate.
The platform also rates the candidate for various skills based on the specified evaluation criteria.
Conclusion
HirePro is one of the most reliable hiring platforms that has become popular among recruiters. It enables recruiters to customise the interview according to the specific job requirements. HirePro helps recruiters tailor the interview process to assess specific skills and competencies leading to better hiring decisions.