How to Make Interviews Fun for Candidates

How to Make Interviews Fun for Candidates

Job interviews can be stressful for everyone involved. You’re on edge because you don’t want to make a costly hiring mistake. And the candidate sitting across from you may be nervous because they really want the position or they’ve been looking for quite some time. After all, this is their future you’re talking about, right?

Take some pressure off by making the interview experience more relaxing and fun than expected.

Set the Right Tone

Begin by making an interview a conversation, not an interrogation. Because there’s certainly nothing fun about being pummeled with questions by an unsmiling, robotic recruiter, right?

  • You can’t have a fun conversation with someone you don’t know. The more you learn about candidates before you interview them, the better. Rapport and connections are based on finding common ground and enjoyable things – both job related and not – to talk about.
  • In addition to reviewing resumes, check applicants out on social media or via personal connections. Then, you can set the tone for your conversation by bringing up something relaxing and enjoyable, like a common passion for golf or your local baseball team. This way, you can both enjoy your meeting, while making the right determination about a possible employer/employee relationship.

Listen

During an interview, let the candidate do most of the talking. When you ask questions, pause periodically and give the conversation time to breathe. Applicants may fill some of these silent holes with comments, perspectives or a little humor of their own. And, they’ll feel less pressured.

Ask Fun Questions

Nothing breaks the ice or helps a candidate ease up and laugh a little like a funny, off-the-wall interview question. As an added benefit, these questions are a good way to test a person’s ability to think on their feet. And, because they tend to be open-ended questions, they can provide additional insight into what makes an individual think and enable them open up a little more, too.

Here are some examples:

  • “Which super power would you like to have?”
  • “Where would you go in a time machine, and why?”

Make It an Interactive Experience

It can be helpful, as well as fun, to get candidates actively involved during an interview by asking them to play a role. For instance, have a customer service representative candidate participate in a mock client call. As you get an idea of their finesse and ability, you can inject humor to ease any tension.

Leave Your Workspace

To make interviews more enjoyable, it helps to conduct them off-site in a comfortable setting like a nearby coffee shop or restaurant. If you have to stay on company grounds, try relocating to a conference room versus being behind your office desk.

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For additional assistance and resources on sourcing, hiring and retaining top talent, contact the expert team at Frontline Source Group. We offer personalized service and a firm belief in building strong client partnerships – working as a natural extension of your existing HR team. If you're looking for staffing services in Plano, TX, click here. To find the branch closest to you, contact us today.

Tagged Blog
Published on Sep 25, 2018