It is easy to recruit a thousand soldiers, but it is difficult to find a general. 

[Chinese proverb]

During classic job interviews, recruiters are often subject to their cognitive biases and therefore :

• Less attentive to the answers given by their candidates.
• Distracted by the answers, and forgetful of the essential.
• More likely to prefer a candidate because of their social-emotional fit than their competence

This leads in turn to worse hires.

An effective and rigorous way to reduce this bias is to conduct structured interviews.

Their ambitious goal is twofold:

1. To allow each candidate to receive an objective and fair evaluation, 
2. and for the recruiter to get rid of his or her biases in order to recruit the best candidate.  

The objective benefit for the company that implements this process is to more easily find the golden nuggets hire that are overlooked during recruitment.
However, this requires a smooth process, with a planified set-up and a methodology for taking notes during the interview.

I. What is a structured recruitment interview?

As the name suggests, a structured interview is a type of interview where:

1. The questions asked are predefined and standardized for each candidate,
2. The answers and profiles given by the candidates are compared side by side to establish a score.

The questions are designed to help recruiters better evaluate profiles and compare answers to select the right person.

The questions are generally based on the skills and qualifications required for the position, and may also include questions about their interests and previous experience.

Preparing these questions, and enriching the answers in a comparison system, therefore requires planning in advance.

This planning saves time because :

• Answers are more easily compared, so making the right informed decision becomes easier.
• The work done upstream can be reused over and over again.

A. What is the purpose of structured recruitment interviews?

They are primarily motivated by a desire to become more inclusive and efficient.

More inclusive:

• They reduce social discrimination in the recruitment process by providing a clear structure for all candidates, and reducing questions and comments that could be considered discriminatory.
• They increase equal treatment with respect to expected competencies because recruiters are not likely to bring up topics that are irrelevant to the expected competencies.

More efficient:

• They allow for a more confident choice of candidate because answers and questions are standardized
• They allow for a better understanding of candidates' skills and experiences with the axiom of objective evaluation of candidates.

B. What is the procedure for a structured recruitment interview?

In order to be highly effective and to meet its objectives, the structured interview process must be very precise.

There are five stages in a structured interview:

1. Preparation : The recruiter prepares specific questions based on the skills and qualifications sought.
2. Introduction: The recruiter begins the interview by explaining the format, purpose and content of the interview.
3. Questions: The recruiter asks the candidate specific questions and provides additional information if necessary.
4. Answers: The candidate answers questions and provides additional information.
5. Closing: The recruiter summarizes the interview and provides an opportunity for the candidate to ask additional questions.

Interested in bringing your hiring interviews to the next level? Try out Spoke - for free:

C. How do you set up structured recruitment interviews?

Here are 5 steps to conduct your first structured interviews step by step:

1. Define the purpose of the interview and determine the information you are seeking to obtain. This could be, for example, determining the candidate's level of education...
2. Prepare specific questions highlighting candidates' skills and interests based on the information sought.
3. Determine the order of the questions and the length of the interview (usually between 45 and 90 minutes).
4. Conduct your interviews in a structured manner - don't forget to keep a notebook nearby!
5. Gather all the interview data (notes, answers to questions etc....) and group them according to their categories in order to start comparing candidates.
6. Finally, compare the candidates' answers accurately, and refer to the defined scoring criteria.

II. How to take notes in an interview and make an efficient report with Spoke

During your structured interviews, Spoke allows you to leave the time-consuming, energy-consuming and manual work behind.

You can use this tool - free of charge - to avoid these tedious tasks by :

• Defining a question template
• Clicking on the "Spoke Pad" to notify your question changes
• Letting your data immediately export to a Google Sheet- so you just cqn compare answers without any effort.

💡- Things to remember

Structured interviews are designed to be objective and avoid so-called -subjective bias.

They allow you to gather accurate and complete information about candidates and comparing them fairly.

It is an effective method for determining the skills required for the current recruitment need.

Finally, structured interviews are an excellent method for assessing the potential of candidates and determining if they are likely to fit into the team and the organization.Interested in bringing your hiring interviews to the next level? Try out Spoke - for free: