How to Determine the Efficiency of Your Interview Process
Most successful companies in the world today recognize that employees are a great asset to an organization; hiring successful employees is determined by how effective your interview process was. An interview is a face-to-face assessment of job candidates to ascertain if they are competent enough for a job position or not. An interview process has to do with asking questions, maintaining eye-to-eye contact with the job candidate, and checking the candidate’s body language. After interviewing; it is highly paramount for you to measure the efficiency of your interview process. This will help you determine if your interview process is successful or not.
Phases of an Interview Process
- Pre-Interview Phase
This is the first phase that preceded an interview. In this phase job, recruiters analyze job candidates’ resumes, documents, and test scores. Job recruiters the applicants they will contact for the next phase based on the evidence at hand. Job recruiters can use search engines like Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn to obtain more information about job applicants.
- Interview Phase
Interviews are categorized into structured and unstructured interviews. The interview phase can be conducted via telephone, Skype, and a face-to-face setting. Multiple interviews can also be conducted if the population of the candidates is high. Situational and behavioral questions are asked to ascertain eligible candidates.
- Post-Interview Stage
In this phase, the interviewer evaluates all the information from the pre-interview stage to the interview phase and combines it with the cognitive ability of the candidate. The interviewer will also evaluate the candidate’s attitude to make the final decision.
There are many parameters or metrics you can use to measure the effectiveness of your interview process, and they are:
- Review of CV Efficiency
This is also crucial because an interview process cannot be complete without this. In this metric, you will assess the number of CVs the company received divided by the number of job applicants contacted for interviews. If the number of job applicants contacted for an interview is too low compared to the number of applications submitted then this implies that the hiring manager is too rigorous with this hiring phase. It may also be that the job specifications and requirements were not well spelled out. An effective hiring process will contact four out of five candidates that applied for the job. However, in the spate of high unemployment, you may actually receive a large number of CVs applying for a position.
- The Duration of your Interview Process
This is the most important recruitment metric most organizations utilize to determine the efficiency of their interview process. This has to do with the interval of your interview process; conducting a short in-person interview is highly effective compared to multiple interviews. A bureaucratic interview process is not effective, but a short interview process can be considered efficient. Use a spreadsheet to check how much time candidates spend at each interview.
- The Number of Candidates Hired
This parameter is very paramount because at this juncture you will divide the number of candidates interviewed and the number of candidates that the organization hired. If the number of candidates interviewed is far higher than the number of candidates hired, it could be that the interviewee process is very stringent or that the shortlisting phase of the interview is not that effective. For instance, if ten job applicants were interviewed and you find it difficult to hire two of the applicants; the interview process could be said to be ineffective. The interview process should be at least 30% effective.
- Acknowledgment of the Job Offer by Candidate
This is another metric employed to measure an interview process. In an interview, the hiring manager allows candidates to negotiate salaries and other entitlement. This negotiation will decide whether a candidate will accept a job offer or not. If the number of candidates that accept the job offer is too low that is: below three candidates then this implies that the hiring manager did not communicate the salary bracket effectively. The number of job proposals you send out should be 80% of the job acceptance.
In addition, if all the candidates accept your job offer, it could mean that your organization is offering spectacular remuneration compared to employees’ workload.
- Efficiency of Hire
This can be measured only when the new hire assumes duty. The efficacy of any interviews is usually determined by the quality of the hire. That is, how the employee is performing his job. A high employee retention rate, positive outcomes in an organization, and a good organizational culture determine the efficacy of the job interview. You need to also checkmate if the employee hired suits the job description as this will also determine the effectiveness of a job interview.
In addition, applicants’ satisfaction is another metric to determine the efficacy of an interview. After 30 days of the new hire resuming duty, you can issue a survey and ask the applicant about his overall experience in the company.
- Cost Per Hire
At this phase, evaluate how much you spent in the hiring process and how much you spend in hiring a particular job candidate. There is always a budget for a hiring process, if you spend above your budget then the hiring process is really expensive but if you spend according to your budget then the hiring process can be considered effective. Choose the metrics that match your current procedure.
- An Organization Interview Process Assessment Meeting
After the interview or hiring process, organize a meeting and access everything that pertains to the interview. The way the company handled the interview: the areas of your strengths and shortcomings. If the area of your strengths exceeded your shortcomings then the interview process was efficient but if your shortcomings are higher, then your interview was not efficient. For instance, if you discover your interview was not effective then you may consider reviewing the interview process. In addition, this assessment can also help the organization set up better ways of conducting an efficient interview. Once you discover that your hiring team is not competent enough, you can organize a recruitment training session for them which is usually handled by a recruitment specialist.
- The Hiring Team Report
The hiring team report is also another parameter you can use to check the effectiveness of an interview. The hiring team report will give an overall account of the interview process. This report will contain a summary of challenges the hiring team encountered in the course of the interview and how they tackled it. This report will help you determine if an interview process is efficient or not. The report will contain; the number of applications, the number of candidates interviewed and the number of candidates employed. This report will also help you determine if your hiring team is competent or not.
Conclusion
In conclusion, if an interview process is efficient; the organization will hire exceptional job candidates and vice-versa. As an employer, it is very paramount for you to access your interview process because this will save you from future disasters. Another benefit of assessing your interview process to checkmate its efficiency is that it will help you to improve your recruitment process. Follow the metrics accentuated above to determine the efficacy of your interview process.