RECRUITING AND CONDUCTING INTERVIEWS IN YOUR ORGANISATION

Interviews are a way of screening persons who may apply to join your organisations as full or part time workers, as interns or as volunteers.

There is so much information on the internet on how to respond to interview questions but not so much focus on how to conduct those interviews for HR managers. In this article, Impacty is sharing helpful tools for social impact organisations to conduct interviews and recruit workers into the organisation.

Before you begin an interview, note that the interviewer has more duties in making for a good interview experience for both the interviewer and interviewee. It is the duty of the HR official to set the tone of the interview. Be comely and a little on the light side. Also, set aside enough time for each interview no matter the number of persons up for the interview. It is okay to take breaks so that you don’t vent your stress on an interview. Doing that makes you indirectly set one candidate at an advantage over another. It is important to read the resumes of your candidates before you start each interview. This would guide you even with extra questions to ask. Also, to have a smooth interview, try to write out the questions before hand. You sure don’t want to spend awkward time trying to recall questions in front of the interviewee.

There are things to consider when setting interview questions. They are:

1. Oratorical skills (if it matters)
2. Relationship with people
3. Basic soft skills
4. Honesty and Empathy
5. Smartness
6. Priorities
7. Knowledge base

Relevant hard core skills are already shown in the CV. In considering the areas enlisted above, the following questions are the top ten interview questions according to resource.workable.com

1. Why did you decide to apply to this role?
2. What experience do you have that would be relevant to this role?
3. Tell me about your experience in…
4. What did you like most about the job description?
5. Why are you leaving your current job? OR why did you leave your previous job?
6. What do you know about our company’s products and services?
7. Tell me about this gap in your resume
8. Describe the workplace where you’ll be most happy and productive
9. What are your salary expectations?
10. Do you have any questions?

It is quite different for social impact organisations. The ideal questions to ask a potential intake at a social impact organisation are (in addition to the above):

1. What does social impact mean to you?
2. Why are you passionate about helping people?
3. Tell us why you chose to apply to work with us
4. Describe your ideal world
5. What SDG is closest to your life’s goals?

Conducting interviews is just one of the steps to making right recruitment choices. Often times, there are more qualified persons for the job role than your organisation needs. Here’s what to do when all of them are on the same pedestal:

•Go over their resumes again

•Consider other factors like gender balance at your organisation.

• Access personalities. Check our article on personalities.

Have in mind that a great workforce begins from great recruitment processes and great choices of personnel. Impacty is with you all the way. Ask us any question via our contact information.