Job-seekers aren't the only ones who experience anxiety when it's time to sit for an interview. Hiring managers and other human resource professionals also experience moments of stress when preparing to interview candidates for positions with their companies. It's up to interviewers to find out as much as they can about job candidates before they make a hiring decision. Employers must possess skills that will help make each interview successful.
Organization Skills
Organization is a key skill employers need when interviewing potential employees. As an employer, you should know which candidates you're interviewing each day and the time you should be prepared to meet with them. Review their applications, resumes, cover letters and portfolios in advance to help you get background information on their skills and experiences, and generate questions for your interview.
Make a list of specific, job- and company-related questions you want to ask each candidate applying for the position. Go into your interviews with all necessary documents you need to reference while talking to potential employees.
Active Listening Skills
As a hiring manager, it's your job to ask potential employees questions to get an understanding of their knowledge, skills and abilities. While asking questions is a large part of the interviewer's role, an interviewer should also have the skill of actively listening to how job candidates respond to questions. In an article for Monster.com, John Dooney, a human resources professional, notes that employers should talk for no more than 30 percent of the interview.
Nonverbal Communication Skills
While job candidates are responding to your interview questions, give them nonverbal cues to help ease the pressure of the interview, and to let them know you're engaged and interested in what they have to say. Sit up straight and look engaged in what potential employees are saying during interviews. Shake hands at the beginning and the end of each interview. Common nonverbal cues employers can give during interviews include giving eye contact and nodding to responses.
Verbal Communication Skills
Interviewers use oral communication skills to ask potential employees questions, and to respond to their questions. Good oral communication skills can help you format your questions so that job candidates understand what's being asked. As you answer questions posed by job seekers, be open and honest, giving them background information on the company, its culture and the expectations of the job you're hiring for.
Time Management Skills
Interviewers have to possess time management skills so that they are both on time for their interview appointments and so that interviews don't run beyond the allotted time. Whether you have back-to-back interviews scheduled or one per day, when interviews last too long they can make you or your interviewee late for upcoming appointments or make you lose your interviewee's attention.
Tags: potential employees, background information, communication skills, Communication Skills, during interviews, each interview, employees questions
