3 essential tips for hiring managers to level up their interviewing skills

As an executive recruiter with over 20 years of experience, I have interviewed at least 10,000 candidates. A big part of my success as a recruiter is being highly skilled at interviewing myself and teaching my clients how to interview excellently. A lot of time, effort, and money goes into a recruitment process, so it would be a terrible shame if great candidates don’t take your role because their interview gets mishandled.

Many line managers and HR professionals think they are great at interviewing because they have done it hundreds of times. Yet if you struggle to attract and hire the best talent, I’d recommend reconsidering and adopting a proven interviewing strategy.

My team and I have used Lou Adler’s Performance Based Hiring interviewing style for over 15 years. For people who interview regularly, I highly recommend reading his book Hire with Your Head to do a deep dive into interviewing excellence.

Here are some tips you can implement easily and immediately, to vastly improve your interviewing skills.

Be clear on the exact key deliverables you are hiring for

Ideally, this should be done before you even go to market. You want to hire someone who has “done it before, done it well, and is motivated to do it again”. What does success look like in the role? What are the specific, quantifiable key deliverables you want in the first three, six, and 12 months of employment?

Use these key deliverables as the foundation for your advertising, headhunting, and other sourcing strategies to ensure you are shortlisting and then interviewing only the best talent based on these desired outcomes.

Ask the candidate to speak about a recent key achievement

People love to do what they are good at and love to talk about it with pride. So by asking the candidate to describe a recent key achievement that they are most proud of, you can quickly determine whether what they love to do matches with what you want them to do. Ask lots of follow-up questions to really probe the candidate about this specific key achievement and what makes it so special for them.

For example, let’s say that you are looking for a sales manager who can assess within the first three months how to reduce the cost of goods sold by 25% to remain competitive with the market.

If your interviewee talks about launching a new product into a new market and achieving a 10% market share within 12 months, they may be a great sales manager, but probably not right for your current requirements.

Ask an additional question

Following on from the example above, if their key achievement does not align with your requirements, then ask a question along the lines of: “What we really need this person to deliver immediately is a strategy to reduce our cost of goods sold by 25%. Can you speak about a relevant key achievement that demonstrates your ability to do this?”

You will quickly be able to determine from their response whether they have the relevant experience to deliver your requirements. Remember, you want to hire someone who has “done it before, done it well, and is motivated to do it again.” Too often, companies hire great people, only to find that they are misaligned with what is actually required.

If your candidate’s experience does not exactly match your required key deliverables, look for key achievements and transferrable skills that most closely reflect what you want them to do. As long as the gap is not too significant, you may be confident that with the appropriate training and support, they will succeed in the role.

These simple interviewing techniques will go a long way towards ensuring that you not only hire the best talent but also that you will retain them in the longer term. People love to do what they are good at and generally will remain longer in the roles that allow them to do this.