3 Interview Tips for Hiring Managers

You have to remember that hiring managers have a full time job that doesn’t revolve around interviewing, employer branding and candidate experience. While they’re absolutely interested in hiring a great candidate for their open role, the process of hiring isn’t exactly their bread and butter.

Hiring managers should be coached early and often, not only about how to interview, but also how to position the company, to increase your chances of hiring the best candidates for all of your roles. In today’s candidate-driven market, candidates have many choices in where to work – so make sure they want to work for your company!

Here are a few of the most common mistakes hiring managers make when it comes to interviewing, and what you can do to correct them:

Hiring managers show up late to interviews.

We all know hiring managers are busy, between running their department and interviewing to fill open roles, but it’s rude to think that their time is worth more than the candidate’s. You expect the candidate to be on time, and should expect the same of your hiring manager.

If you see that a hiring manager is consistently making candidates wait around, you should pull them aside to set the expectation that they be on time for all interviews. You could even block off 15-30 minutes on your hiring manager’s calendar before each interview to ensure that they have time to wrap up prior projects and get into the interview mindset.

Hiring managers come to interviews unprepared.

Again, you should hold your hiring managers to the same expectations you hold your candidates to. A candidate is expected to prepare for an interview by researching the role, the company, and the hiring manager, and coming to the interview with a list of questions.

Similarly, your hiring managers should prepare for the interview by reviewing the candidate’s resume and notes from the direct hire agency and HR, and compiling a list of questions they’d like to follow up on. Again, blocking off 15-30 minutes before each interview can give the hiring manager a good opportunity to review the candidate’s profile and prepare for the interview.

Hiring managers make it all about themselves.

While hiring managers want to ensure that they find the best possible candidate for their role, they often forget that the candidate is also looking for the best possible fit. Your direct hire agency likely uncovered some of the candidate’s motivations in looking for a new role, so it’s crucial that your hiring manager touches on how your role can fulfill the candidate’s requests.

They should also leave plenty of time for candidate questions so the candidate can get to know them more as a potential future manager.

These interview tips all have one common thread: providing a great candidate experience. If you want the best candidates, you have to provide a great experience so they want to work for you.

Once you’ve put in the work to source and screen candidates, make sure your hiring managers can keep your recruitment process humming along.