The Remote Interview: Part 3

In the first two installments of my remote interview series, I discussed how to prepare for a virtual interview as a candidate, and what regularly goes wrong from an employer's perspective when conducting virtual interviews. In this installment, I'm going to outline how organizations should prepare and conduct remote interviews and why consistency is key.

By the time a candidate makes it to an interview with the hiring manager, they will have already read the job description, researched the company, submitted an application, spoken with a recruiter, and scheduled an interview. Companies that have a successful interview process have two things in common: they have a system and they are consistent.

I discussed the importance of having a uniform system in the remote interview part 2. Now I'm going to address the importance of consistency within that system and during the interview itself.

It's crucial that companies streamline their internal systems whenever possible. If you are hiring, you should use a system that aids in the recruitment process, especially the intake and review processes. Candidates should be instructed to submit the same materials in the same format, making it easy for the HR team to review applications. A streamlined system takes any guesswork out of the equation and lets the hiring committee focus on the content of the application.

Long before a job description post is published, companies need to determine exactly what they are looking for in a candidate. You might ask, "what happens if the company doesn't know exactly what they're looking for yet, and want to use the interview process to figure that out?" First of all, this isn't a good look - it's not fair to use serious applicants as resources to determine what you as a company need. Second, there is a difference between knowing what you're looking for in a candidate vs. what you're looking for in terms of the position you need to hire. Companies should know what they need in terms of the position as well as qualities that they look for in a candidate; i.e. what hard skills are required, and what soft skills are well-suited to the company's mission, values, and culture.

In addition to knowing what's required of an applicant, companies need to determine how and what they will test throughout the interview process. The best way to do this is to develop a series of tests that evaluate hard skills, soft skills, required experience, and general requirements. Here's how to do this:

  1. General requirements. If you’re like 56% of the world's companies, you allow some sort of remote working. This is great and widens your potential reach when it comes to sourcing talent. That being said, you have the ability to hire people based across the globe. While this has its pros, it also makes it difficult to coordinate schedules across multiple time zones. Your interview process needs to address this. The first thing I do during an interview is to pull up world time buddy and confirm that they can work during regular EST business hours. I will also confirm that their mastery of the English language is up to our standards through a series of pre-interview tests. These are just a couple of examples of general requirements that must be determined.

  2. Required experience. Level of experience depends on the position. A receptionist, customer support agent, data scientist, and strategist all require different levels of experience. You have to decide how many years' experience the position requires. This can be easily answered prior to an interview when the candidate fills out their application, but the live interview is your opportunity to dig into their experience and make sure that it is truly relevant to the position.

  3. Soft skills. Soft skills are harder to measure during an interview than hard skills, but you should be able to determine a variety of items through a general conversation. How does this person handle pressure? An interview is stressful, so you can gauge how nervous they are and if they warm up during the interview. How does this person conduct themself? Did they show up on time? Did they make an effort to tidy their background or put on a clean shirt? Did they thank you for your time and send you a thank you note? Will they fit into your company culture and is this a person that you potentially want to work with and could depend on?

  4. Hard Skills. Hard skills are easy to test for. If your position requires a certain level of HTML, JSON, or use of Google Sheets, for example, test the candidate live. Provide them with a prompt in real time and ask them to share their screen while they work on a very short project. I prefer the live test method over the option of asking candidates to do something before or after the initial interview, for the sole reason that they could take a ridiculous amount of time to complete it or, worse - have someone else do it for them.

  5. Expectations. Initial interviews should be used as platforms to test applications. If you are going to leverage these interviews accordingly, be sure to notify the candidates in advance so that they are mentally prepared to show up and perform a live test. I like to set expectations in the job description by clearly outlining the hiring process, reiterating them after the initial screening with the recruiter, and after the candidate has scheduled a call with the hiring manager.

  6. Uniform interviews. Providing uniform structure during interviews levels the playing field for candidates and allows you to assess them accordingly.

Remember that hiring can be frustrating but it'll never be as frustrating as trying to find a job. Be compassionate and do what you say you're going to do. If you interview someone and tell them that you'll be in touch, let them know your decision sooner rather than later, and never ghost anyone or leave them hanging. Everyone deserves feedback when possible, and a decision no matter the direction you go.

Like everything at Streamlined Scaling, preparation is key. Going into an interview and knowing the exact format of the interview, what skills you're testing, and how you’re going to assess them will set you up for success and streamline your ability to hire quickly.

Image by: LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash

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How to Onboard an Employee Properly

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The Remote Interview: Part 2