How To Create Interview Training for Hiring Managers

What To Cover in Interview Training

Your interview training program should be unique to your organization and training goals. Here’s a list of things to consider covering in interview training, as well as some ideas on how to deliver this information in the interview training.

Pre and Post-Interview Responsibilities

What is the hiring manager expected to do before and after the interview? Cover tasks in training they may have to complete. Include the directions and details elsewhere (in a training guide) so they can revisit if needed.

For example, a hiring manager may need to be involved in interview scheduling, or a job analysis might need to be done before the interview if it’s a unique position, but after the interview, there’s less work because someone else takes care of notifying the candidates, negotiation, and onboarding. The expectations will differ depending on the role and your organization’s interview process.

How to Conduct Structured Interviews

Since unstructured and semi-structured interviewing is common, most interviewers are used to having a lot of flexibility in interviews, so switching to structured interviewing might be a bigger challenge than they realize.

You’ll have to help interviewers unlearn their habits as they learn how to conduct structured interviews, where they’ll closely follow a pre-determined course of action. Standardization may feel counterintuitive because interviewers can no longer go with the flow and rely on their instincts like they used to, but it will improve hiring outcomes (Forbes).

Whether your organization already conducts structured interviews and you’re providing formal training for the first time, or you’re providing training as part of transitioning from unstructured to structured interviewing, you’ll want to start by emphasizing the ‘why.’ Show participants stats like these to get buy-in:

Provide them with a sample rating and interview guide, and describe how they will use each in detail. Once they understand the principles, mock interviews are a great tool to practice this interview format.

Send this in-depth guide to your hiring managers

Download The Modern Guide To Structured Interviewing

How to Combat Hiring Bias

Organizations need to provide strategies to avoid unintentional discrimination in the hiring process.

One approach is to make DEI training mandatory in addition to interview training or make it part of it. DEI training teaches interviewers about a range of personal biases and how to avoid common pitfalls like making judgments based on intuition or selecting people based on cultural fit (which is a myth, according to TalentRise).

Following a structured interview process closely is also a reliable way for interviewers to treat everyone the same way and assess based on job-relevant competencies.

How To Create a Positive Candidate Experience

Explain why candidate experience is so important and share tips interviewers can use to make candidates more comfortable while staying within the bounds of the interview process.

Collect feedback from candidates after the interview

How will you know how candidates feel about your organization’s interviewers and interview process without asking? External feedback is a powerful tool you can use to improve your interview training.

If you don’t collect candidate feedback, start with an anonymous survey that goes out after they finish an interview. Assure candidates that whatever they write will not be considered in the decision process.

Illegal Interview Questions and Practices

Illegal interview questions can land your organization in hot water. Often, they are asked innocently to try to put the candidate at ease, but as you just learned, there are other ways to create a positive candidate experience.

Teach interviewers what to avoid asking or talking about or how to conduct structured interviews.

Structured interviewing is less risky than unstructured interviewing because the questions are all approved in advance and based on core competencies identified in the job analysis. The interview should not be discriminatory if the interviewer follows the guide closely.

Below are some illegal interview topics to teach your hiring managers they should avoid and some tactics to support interviewers with legal compliance.

How To Take Notes

Poor interview documentation can create issues, especially if someone files a complaint and there are no notes or records of their interview.

If you don’t already have one, create a policy around interview documentation to outline rules around taking notes, remind interviewers they are discoverable, and prevent people from capturing irrelevant information. Quiz hiring managers on this policy after training them on it.

How To Use the Interview Platform

Give hiring managers all the training and support they need to effectively use your organization’s chosen hiring platform for interviewing. If necessary, illustrate how it integrates with your organization’s applicant tracking system.

Get them comfortable with the digital version of your interview workflow, and make sure they know how to navigate the digital interview guide and how to fill out and submit the scorecard.

There could be a steep learning curve, especially for interviewers uncomfortable with technology. See if the vendor can support you by offering interview platform training or training guides to your hiring managers.

What Is DEI Training?

According to the Association for Talent Development, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training helps “workplaces become more diverse, equitable, and inclusive, particularly for employees from underrepresented or historically marginalized communities.”

There are subtypes of DEI training that educate employees in different ways and influence how they behave, including a type specifically focused on hiring and interviewing. This type of DEI training benefits all staff involved in hiring.

In DEI training for hiring, participants learn a variety of things, including (but not limited to):

• All about hiring biases: how we develop them and how they impact hiring decisions
• Where and how different biases can creep into the hiring process
• Interview strategies and techniques to disrupt bias and avoid common mistakes
• How to define success and assess your organization’s hiring practices

DEI training is important for interviewers because it minimizes the impact of hiring biases on ratings, helps prevent unintentional discrimination, and supports greater organizational efforts to prioritize DEI.

Take Harvard’s Implicit Association Test (IAT)

Hiring managers can take an IAT as part of DEI or interview training. These tests detect the strength of subconscious associations between concepts in your memory, and the results help create self-awareness.

Educating people about bias isn’t enough to prevent bias, but it’s a solid first step. Harvard’s IAT (Project Implicit) is a free option to take advantage of.

How Can a Hiring Platform Benefit Interviewer Training?

Hiring platforms, specifically those equipped with interview intelligence, increase transparency and provide AI insights about interviewer performance in video interviews.

Here are some ways you can leverage this technology to elevate interviewer training and performance.