Interviews are great ways for leadership to gain insight into potential or current employees. Know what employees want, and create better connections with a more engaging and inclusive workplace. There are three types of interviews HR professionals should think about and prepare for as part of the regular employment process.
1. The job interview
- What is it: This is the most obvious interview type we are all familiar with, but its importance should not be ignored. This is usually the first impression potential employees receive of the organization. Remember they are interviewing you just as much as you are interviewing them.
- What are the benefits: Getting a sense of who this person is, and how their skills and experience can be useful to the organization is key. You also want to make sure you are sharing information about the organization so the interviewee can determine if this role and organization is right for them. This is an important first impression for both of you.
- What are the challenges: Employers should ensure the interviewee has plenty of time to answer questions, demonstrate their skills and background, and ask their own questions. This is a limited amount of time and a formal setting to get to know someone, so it can feel daunting to know you’re making the right decision. Preparation is key to help avoid these challenges and ensure you are asking the right questions to engage the interviewee and get to know them.
2. The stay interview
- What is it: While this could be done with the manager, HR involvement in the process can be helpful. The role of this interview is to understand what is going well for the employee and where they could use support. This is also an opportunity to head off issues that may cause an employee to leave, including if they are challenged enough, or have too little to do, if there are growth and development opportunities, and if employee engagement is as expected.
- What are the benefits: Employee feedback in an open conversation can help identify opportunities for individuals or teams, help managers understand workload, what aspects of jobs employees find engaging and exciting, and build open communication with employees, helping them feel seen, heard, and valued. This could be more informative than employee satisfaction surveys, and could even follow surveys, to better understand how employees feel. Most importantly, this can help retain staff if the conversations are productive and action is taken.
- What are the challenges: It can be hard to hear unpleasant feedback. This is always going to be a challenge. Additionally, if action is not taken based on learnings from these conversations, they will become less useful to the organization and employees.
3. The exit interview
- What is it: While well known, this interview is not always used as it can be seen as employees blowing off steam on their way out. However, the exit interview provides an opportunity to learn what is happening that may be hard for employees to share during stay interviews, one-on-one meetings, or other conversations. This can include HR issues, leadership effectiveness, or work perceptions including culture, workload, peers, etc.
- What are the benefits: The opportunity to understand where changes may be needed, especially if there are patterns in exit interviews lets HR and leadership know of systemic issues or challenges. Depending on the questions asked, these can also identify ideas for improving the organization, both internally and externally.
- What are the challenges: As with the stay interviews, feedback received may be hard to hear. Some organizations generally avoid these because they see it as a list of grievances, or someone with an ax to grind. However, listening consistently can provide the opportunities listed above.
Interviews are a great way to get to know potential and current employees. Gain insight into what is working, how positions evolve and grow, staff needs shift, and management works, with feedback from your team at each step of employment. You can learn more about how best to implement and prepare for all these types of interviews at HR Compliance Certification School with CU Doctor in July.