Good interview invitations

Better Recruitment

This is the third post in a series of doing recruitment better, as a first step to developing a high-performance culture. If you’ve written a good advert, you will attract good applicants. The next step is to invite them to interview.

A good interview invitation will:

* Be clear what the interview will cover
* Explain who will be in the panel and how they fit into your organisation
* Give the rationale for why you are asking for people's time
* Let them know what the process will be going forward
* Use plain language over jargon
* When information is important (eg action is needed) separate this out clearly rather than burying it in the middle of a sentence or paragraph

Also: if you ask people to complete some kind of assignment, think about the way you present it (how long do you give people? how do you explain it? etc) - and have this also reflect what it's like to work at your organisation.

Remember, interviewing is a two way street. The old school approach, where we imagine that all the power is on the company side, is D-E-A-D. If you want good, smart, engaged, self-aware, self-directed candidates you need to engage them in an adult-to-adult conversation from the off.

Also, good clear communication helps people not be taken off guard at interview. You want to give people a chance to show you what they can do. “Exam conditions” make everyone nervous, and can lead all of us to do weird things that make our true abilities. So a good invitation serves your process.

PS: Learning to reject well is part of being a good, mature human being. For companies, it's vital: candidates you reject (or even employees you let go) will become evangelists for your brand if you do it well. Do it badly and you compromise your ability not only to hire, but also to sell. So the follow up after interview matters too.