You’ve learned the ins and outs of interviewing, and you’ve interviewed hundreds if not thousands of candidates. That’s not where your hiring managers are, though. Most of their skills and expertise are specific to their department’s business function, not hiring. And, if they only do a few interviews a year, they don’t get much practice. It’s up to your TA team to educate and train hiring managers how to interview so they too can become master interviewers.
I Need Interview Training?
Whether they realize it or not, hiring managers are vital partners in meeting your talent goals. However, you may need to convince them of the value of training. Like recruiters, hiring managers are often overwhelmed with responsibilities. They may not see the need to spend time on interviewing skills. In response, you could talk about how much more productive their department could be by hiring a better candidate. Another tack is raising their awareness of the costs of a bad hire. Either way, getting their buy-in is essential.
There’s More to It Than Asking Questions
Evaluating candidates against job requirements is the main goal in an interview, but there’s so much more to giving candidates a great interview experience. Here are few ways you can get hiring managers thinking about the bigger hiring picture:
Explain their role in employer brand continuity.
Hiring managers plug into your hiring process at specific times. They may not be aware of your work to provide a consistent, branded candidate experience, and how fundamental that experience is in making great hires. In fact, a CareerBuilder study found just 16% of hiring managers are trained on carrying the candidate experience. Help them better understand their important role in the process, and their part in selling your organization’s employer brand. Training hiring managers how to interview is key.
Brief them on body language.
The ability to accurately read candidates’ body language is an interviewing skill hiring managers can improve with your help. Equally important is making them aware of their own non-verbal cues. By actively thinking about and controlling their own body language, hiring managers can enhance the candidate experience and the productivity of the meeting.
Spotlight the double value of candidate questions.
Modern candidates expect a dialog, not a one-way conversation. Make sure your hiring managers understand this and expect to be evaluated by their interviewees. And, when hiring managers give candidates more than a cursory chance to ask questions, they get a double benefit: It improves the candidate experience, and it’s an opportunity for hiring managers to gain further insight into the candidate. Clue hiring managers in on paying close attention to the kinds of questions candidates pose. Someone who asks, “What’s the most critical issue for your department today?” or “How is success defined here?” is thinking well beyond salary and benefits.
Ask about their comfort with HR tech.
Today’s interviewing solutions are designed to be simple to use but hiring managers who only hire a few times a year may need a refresher. Ask about their comfort level with the technology and make sure they are aware of all its capabilities so you both can get the most value from it. Learning how to interview in the digital age is vital.
The Interview Experience Matters
More than 8 in 10 active job seekers (83%) believe the experience they have when interviewing for a job ‘matters a lot’ in their decision about where to work. Show hiring managers that with master interviewing skills, they’ll be more successful in adding the talent they want to their team.