Take a new approach to conducting job interviews

For many companies, the old way of conducting job interviews has been fairly effective for a long time. But with declining unemployment, competition for qualified candidates is only likely to intensify and businesses in all fields may need to do more to make their processes different from industry norms and find uniquely qualified candidates.

That can certainly start even before a person comes in for an interview, according to Social Talent. Taking a little more time than normal to research a candidate who is on the short list to come in for an interview may turn up unexpected information that can then be used as part of the interview itself. That kind of extra data can help companies craft better questions that pertain directly to a person’s qualifications for the position they seek.

One strategy that managers can follow is to tailor the interview to the candidate, rather than simply read questions from a list.  It might be wiser to make every interview more conversational. After all, candidates who apply for numerous jobs in their chosen field may get a relatively similar slate of questions in most of their interviews, so mixing things up can help keep things interesting for them and arrive at more spontaneous answers.

An uncommon interview process can result in pleasant surprises.

Accepting what comes
Obviously not all candidates who apply for an open position are ideal hires, but companies also shouldn’t be quick to dismiss applicants out of hand based on one or two potential issues with their resumes or cover letters, according to Business News Daily. If hiring managers like what they see but have a few questions, they might be wise to still bring those people in and talk openly about those concerns. While some of the issues may be insurmountable, it’s at least worth hashing out in many situations, because there’s sometimes a simple explanation that can assuage hiring managers’ concerns.

Getting it right
Certainly, even a conversational interview should still have a direction, so hiring managers should know in advance how they want that conversation to go, generally speaking, according to Reed Global. With that in mind, though, it’s also important for job candidates to understand that process as well, because that might help them feel more at ease, and give answers that might better reflect their future job performance.

After all, a job interview can be a little tense for someone looking to get hired, but they presumably won’t be tense once they actually get hired and are on the job for a while, the report said. As such, keeping it relaxed and closely monitoring a candidate’s body language to make sure they’re comfortable with how the conversation is going could help identify an ideal candidate.

When companies are more open and less traditional in the hiring process, they may be able to identify high-quality candidates who might have otherwise gotten passed over for a job they can fill perfectly. That additional flexibility might be vital to businesses as the job market continues to tighten.