The Ultimate Interview Template for Hiring Managers

You've sifted through a mountain of CVs, hunted high and low for the ideal candidates, and now you face the essential task of conducting interviews. Sounds simple? Unfortunately, many hiring managers discover it's harder than they think to create a clear, structured interview template, that actually aligns with the job requirements. That's where this guide comes in.

1. Crafting Your Interview Template

1.1 Understanding the Role's Requirements

Understanding a role's requirements is your first step in crafting a tailored interview template: you can't align your questions if you're unclear about what the job entails and what equals success. Begin by gathering insights from multiple sources within your organisation:

• Job descriptions: Ensure they reflect current needs, not just recycled criteria.

• Department heads: What do they see as key priorities and challenges for the role?

• Team members: What competencies do they think are necessary for a successful candidate?

Sometimes, job descriptions and actual needs diverge. Avoid discovering discrepancies by cross-referencing with stakeholders early.

Pro-tip: When revising job descriptions, engage with someone currently in the role, if possible. Their insights about day-to-day responsibilities can be invaluable.

1.2 Identifying Key Competencies and Skills

Identifying key competencies and skills is crucial to creating an interview template that you can use to effectively assess candidates. For each role consider:

• Technical Skills: Do they need proficiency in specific software or methodologies?

• Soft Skills: How important are initiative and team collaboration for example?

• Cultural Fit: Does the candidate's work style align with your organisational ethos?

Evaluate these areas through measurable criteria. For example, if collaboration is key, consider integrating peer review or group project assessments into later interview stages.

Make sure to consult your company's competency framework to create a standardised method for evaluating candidates. It should be aligned with your company’s strategic goals, so it will help you create a more holistic assessment process. Remember that with Evidenced, you can define and prioritise your competencies, and the platform will generate structured interview questions tailored to each one.

2. Integrating the Ultimate Interview Template into Your Hiring Process

2.1 How to Customise the Template for Different Roles

Customising your interview template begins with understanding the unique needs of the position. To ensure that your template is robust and does align properly you'll need to involve team leaders in the process, as they'll provide insights into daily tasks and skills gaps within their teams. Use their input to adjust your template accordingly, as this way you're not just assessing candidates' qualifications but also their potential contribution to team dynamics.

Here's an effective workflow to follow when customising:

• Consult The Appropriate Department Head: Gather input on necessary skills and team culture.

• Map Questions to Skills: Align behavioural and technical questions to specific job requirements.

• Pilot and Refine: Test your template with a mock interview, then refine based on feedback.

2.2 Preparing Initial and Follow-Up Questions

Effective interviews rely on both well-crafted initial questions and insightful follow-ups to dig deeper into a candidate’s experience and thinking. Start by preparing core questions that align with key responsibilities and challenges of the role.

For example, instead of a generic "Tell me about a time you led a team", consider asking, "Describe a project where you had to lead a team under tight deadlines - what was your strategy?". This gives candidates an opportunity to demonstrate relevant experience clearly.

Follow-up questions are just as important, as they help you probe further into the candidate’s responses to uncover motivation, decision-making, and impact. For instance, after the initial question above, you might ask, "What would you do differently next time?" or "How did your leadership style influence the outcome?"

When developing questions, prioritize relevance, clarity, and depth. Ensure your initial and follow-up questions explore different competencies like communication, adaptability, leadership, and problem-solving.

2.3 Feedback and Iteration: Evolving Your Template

Feedback is crucial for refining and evolving your interview template. Once an interview cycle completes, gather feedback not just from hiring managers but also from interviewees. They offer fresh perspectives on the process and question relevance. Use this feedback to identify gaps or areas that need improvement within your template.

Regularly updating the template to reflect these insights keeps it effective and relevant over time. Incorporate feedback loops into your process by scheduling biannual template reviews. During these, assess:

• Candidate Feedback: Were questions conducive to clear, informative answers?

• Interviewer Insights: Did the template align with role requirements during actual interviews?

• Outcome Analysis: Track which questions led to successful hires and at which stages candidates typically faltered - you can do this easily with the use of Evidenced's custom insight reports.

3. Best Practices for Utilising the Ultimate Interview Template

3.1 Ensuring a Balanced and Fair Interview Process

Creating a balanced and fair interview process requires a structured approach. Start by establishing clear criteria that meet the role's needs and your company values to ensure you assess each candidate consistently. Use a scoring system, developed from job competencies, to quantify responses and minimise subconscious bias.

Consider developing a standardised scorecard embedded into your interview template. This will make it much easier to produce and keep track of accurate interview feedback.

3.2 The Importance of Training Interviewers

Training your interviewers is pivotal to conducting effective and reliable interviews. Comprehensive training helps ensure your team knows how to use the interview template correctly, focusing on both technical skills and cultural fit. Schedule regular training sessions for Hiring Managers to update interviewers on best practices and the latest interviewing techniques.

Encourage interviewers to engage in peer observations via interview shadowing - observing colleagues helps identify best practices and areas for improvement. Remember that with Evidenced you can easily run asynchronous interviews shadowing, and with built in realtime guidance even less experienced interviewers can deliver high-quality, structured interviews.

3.3 Measuring the Success of Your Interviews

Assessing the success of your interviews is crucial for continuous improvement. Start by identifying key metrics such as time to hire, quality of hire, and candidate satisfaction. Track these metrics over time to understand trends and implement necessary adjustments. Take care to reflect on feedback from both candidates and interviewers.

You should consider using an applicant tracking system (ATS) to streamline data collection and analysis. A good ATS provides detailed reports that highlight areas for improvement in your hiring process, and by integrating Evidenced with your ATS, you'll be provided with detailed interview analytics - helping you measure what matters and continuously improve your process.

In conclusion, refining your interview process with a structured template is essential for consistent and fair hiring. By ensuring balance, training your team, and measuring success, you enhance overall hiring quality and candidate experience.

Too busy to manually write interview templates?

Get expert interview templates built automatically from your core competencies with Evidenced.

Check out our full demo here.