Are you responsible for hiring people in your company? Are you looking for a new job? Either way, you're going to take part in some sort of interview. And for those that are either new to the interviewing game or have been doing it so long that it's second nature, there are most definitely some things that have changed. The following is my "must do" list for interviewers.

Top Ten Tips for Interviewers:

1. Prescreen for the "can do" factors by phone. Those are things like education, credentials, licenses, scheduling and ability to handle the physical requirements of the job, among others. Don't waste precious interview time on this.
 
2. If salary is an issue in this job, discuss it over the phone in the prescreening interview. It's another waste of time to spend 40 minutes interviewing someone, only to find out that $7.25 an hour is way less than they're willing to take.

3. Move it along quickly. Nothing loses quality candidates faster than a slow moving process. Although the job market is flooded with over a million people that have been laid off, there's still a shortage of quality candidates.

4. Be realistic in establishing qualifications for the job. Unrealistic educational or experience requirements may screen out viable candidates, many who may be in-house.

5. Use behavior based interviewing techniques. If you don't know how, there are many publications and videos that explain how to do it. You'll hire better employees.
 
6. Reference check. Always. Period. No exceptions.

7. If you're using serial or panel interviews, make sure each person is thoroughly prepped on their part. This eliminates redundancy and the potential for illegal interview questions.

8. Keep the 80/20 Rule in mind. This says that the interviewee should do 80 percent of the talking and the interviewer 20 percent of the talking. If you have a one-hour interview, that means you, as the interviewer, get to do 12 minutes of talking. After all, how can you get information (which is what interviewers are supposed to do) if you're doing too much talking!

9. Make sure your interview has structure. Every interviewer should be asked the same questions. After all, how can you compare candidates if you're comparing different responses?

10. Follow up with everyone, in a reasonable time format. If the decision to hire gets pushed back, inform each candidate. If you have a good candidate that you couldn't offer a job, let him or her know that you'd like to keep them on file for future openings. Part of the interview process is to promote good will- follow up will help you do that.

Follow these tips, and watch your interviews improve dramatically. Think you don't have time? Think again... because we always seem to have time to waste on poor hires! Things like slow learning curves, discipline problems and poor fit for the job can be significantly minimized, and even eliminated. Think of all the extra time that you give you!

Lynda Ford, author of this article, is president of The Ford Group, a consulting firm dedicated to improving organizations through their greatest potential resource people. Her first book, FAST52: Building an Exceptional Workplace Environment has just been published. She can be contacted by e-mail at lynda@fordgroup.com, or by phone at (315) 339-6398.

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