Hiring is a big part of every company’s success as hiring the right person verus hiring the wrong person is highly impactful to a company’s future. Employers do their due diligence by conducting an extensive interview and screening process and each company go through many years of trial and error, as well as researching the best combination of methods that prove to be the best their team.
Here are a few common interview formats that businesses are using in 2023 to conduct their interviews, and the Pros and Cons of each, and when it’s best to use them:
1) Traditional In-person Interview
Usually a one-on-one interview between the interviewer (the hiring manager or HR) and job candidate. Most companies will still hold an in-person interview near the final stages of the process to better assess the candidate before making a decision.
Pros:
- Time-tested, reliable, predictable, and generally accepted
- Allows the interviewer to assess a job candidates presentation, communication, body language, and more
Cons:
- Hard to schedule and time-consuming for both the interviewer and job candidate
- Candidates usually can’t refer to any notes and their performance is partially reliant on their memory
2) Phone Interview
Most companies have replaced traditional in-person interviews by conducting phone interviews (usually a quick 30 minutes conversation) in the initial stage of their interview process.
Pros:
- Allows for prescreening a candidate without deep diving into the conversation
- Flexibility, ease in scheduling, and cost effective
- Job candidates may be less anxious in the comfort of their home and a better conversation can be had
Cons:
- You can’t assess as thoroughly as you can in a face-to-face situation such as: body language, facial expressions, presentation, and more
- Connection problems and distractions may affect the effectiveness of the call
- Candidates is able to look for answers to questions they do not know
3) Video Interview
Growing in popularity in recent years when many businesses were forced to work remotely and is preferred over phone interviews. Businesses that have multiple stages in their interview process use video interviews to further assess a potential candidate before committing more time and resources to have a candidate for an in-person interview.
Pros:
- Flexibility, ease in scheduling, and cost effective
- Face-to-face meeting to assess a job candidates presentation, communication, body language, and more
Cons:
- Connection problems and distractions may affect the effectiveness of the call
- Candidates is able to look for answers to questions they do not know
4) Panel Interview
Consisting of multiple interviewers usually including the hiring manager, HR, and senior management, panel interviews are usually conducted in the final rounds of interviews. Candidates may meet all the interviewers together at once, or interviewers came meet the candidates individually one at a time.
Pros:
- Multiple perspective from different interviewers reducing any biases
- Allows interviewer to discuss and make a collective group decision on candidate
- Gives candidates to meet different individuals and see different personalities in the company
Cons:
- Can be difficult to organize and coordinate the schedule of multiple individuals
- Questions may be repetitive (especially if interviewers do not meet a candidate together)
- More opinions mean higher chance of disagreement on a candidate
- Costly and time intensive
- Can be overwhelming for a candidate to face multiple interviewers at once
5) Prerecorded Interview
With the rise in popularity of video interviews, prerecorded interviews have also gained momentum as Employers are able to have a preset of questions that they can have job candidates respond to in a recording than can be sent to the interviewer to be reviewed.
Pros:
- Allows the interviewer review candidate responses at their convenience
- Candidates are able to perfect their answer and give the best response
Cons:
- responses will sound scripted and not natural as you would get in a conversation
- there cannot be any follow up questions to responses
- candidate may misinterpret the question and not give the response that the interviewers may be looking for
6) Technical (Assessment and Testing) Interview
For many positions that require specific experience and skillsets, interviewers put candidates through a series of technical questions, testing, and assignments.
Pros:
- Flexibility to be completed in-person or from home (either option does not require the interviewer to be present)
Cons:
- May not simulate real-world environments and may be limited
- Not able to assess abilities for collaboration, teamwork, and working with others
7) Career Fair Interviews
Typically for industry specific and entry level positions, career fairs allow both businesses and job seekers an opportunity in an informal / introductory interview setting.
Pros:
- Opportunity to meet a large amount of people in one place
- Allows for prescreening a candidate without deep diving into the conversation
Cons:
- Costly and time consuming as career fairs require planning, set up, and can span over multiple days or a full week.
- Candidates are limited to those who are geographically close to where the fair is hosted
Each method of interviewing has its own advantages and disadvantages and companies should never rely on just one method throughout their process. It is through the use of a combination of method will one be able to fully assess candidates in a variety of different ways and come out in the end with the best possible match.
Contact Us today to speak with one of our Recruitment Specialists and let us help you build your team with the right talent this year!
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