Why use an interview evaluation form?
There are many benefits companies stand to gain by employing the use of interview evaluation forms. These benefits favour not only the HR teams but also the hiring managers and candidates as well.
The benefits you gain from using an interview evaluation form are:
- Curbs hiring bias: As humans, we are likely to judge candidates based on unconscious personal bias. This means we tend to look for information that verifies our initial impression of a candidate. This could lead to the hiring of unqualified candidates who are not fit for the company. The interview evaluation form can reduce hiring bias by allowing HR personnel to assess candidates based on predetermined criteria.
- Better candidate experience: The interview process is one of the most important parts of the candidate experience. By having a straightforward interview evaluation form your candidate will have a more consistent and enjoyable interview. Also, an evaluation form prevents you from straying from the point and asking illegal or improper questions during the interview.
- Easier training for new hiring personnel: With a structured interview evaluation form in place, it will be easier for you to train your new hiring managers or recruiters. This will help them take on the interview process without the need for HR.
- Faster hiring process: With an interview evaluation process on hand, your hiring process becomes faster. You won’t need to have to think of questions to ask the candidates or have to try to remember their answers to them. This will help you go through as many quality candidates as you want in as little time.
- The hiring of quality candidates: With the help of an interview evaluation form, interviewers can make objective comparisons between candidates. This will allow them to easily know the better-qualified candidate among the multitude. This candidate will be better aligned with the values and skills required to excel in the role.
Having known the benefits of having an interview evaluation form, next, we look at the important items to include when creating a standard form.
What to include in an interview evaluation form
While the content of an interview evaluation may be different due to the job specification tailored, there are certain items every standard evaluation form should have. These items are:
- Organizational values in candidates: A standard interview evaluation form must include the value your company is seeking in candidates. This includes their educational backgrounds, certifications, teamwork and any other important qualifications your company’s employees must possess.
- Role of the candidate: An interview evaluation form be tailored towards the role the candidate is interviewing for. For instance, the evaluation for a software engineer will be different from the one for an administrative position. While one would include questions about coding, the other will focus on administrative duties.
- Basic information: Having the candidate’s basic information like name, date or applied role is important for record-keeping purposes. It will ensure that anyone in the interview will have enough information they need when giving their feedback.
- Interviewer(s) names: There should be a section set aside for the names of the interviews. This will help you understand the context of every evaluation criteria better. For instance, the hiring manager may have more to say about a candidate than the HR team member and his/her evaluation may need to be paid more attention to.
- Scoring system: This is a key section of an interview evaluation form that helps you evaluate your candidate overall criteria. It lets you easily identify their strengths and weaknesses.
To objectively be able to do that, your interviewers should not rely on unreliable sources of feedback. Instead, Your interview evaluation form should have a clear scoring system. This is especially important if the interview involves more than one interviewer.
Having an evaluation form that rates candidates 1-5 can be risky as it may lead to confusion. Instead, identify what each number from 1-5 represents. The commonly used scoring system is 5 – Excellent, 4 – Good, 3 – Average, 2 – Below Average, and 1 – Poor.
- Room for comments: An interview evaluation form is created to help enhance the interview process. To do this well, hiring managers may need to write notes on what makes a candidate stand out (or not). This is why it is essential you leave room for comments in your interview evaluation form.
- Overall impression and recommendations: This part is the final section of any standard interview evaluation form. It would allow the interviewer to decide what they want to do next with the selected candidate. It gives a clear picture of whether they should hire the candidate or not.
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