Getting hiring right is mission critical to building a successful business. When executed well, hiring leads to strong teams, maximal output, and great innovation; but when executed poorly, it results in expensive employee turnover, decreased productivity, and reduced customer satisfaction. Multiple attrition studies show the cost of a poor hire is at least 30% of the employee’s annual salary.

So how do you make sure you’re hiring the right people?

As the leading predictor of job success, the most reliable tool in a hiring leader’s toolbox is the interview. Traditionally, hiring leaders have approached interviews by engaging in free-flowing conversations, and relying on their own instincts to judge an interviewee’s potential. Unfortunately, such unstandardized practices end up delivering inconsistent results - not to mention inviting unconscious biases into the hiring process. But with the rapid advancement of data-driven technology at our fingertips in today’s hiring landscape, there’s no reason why we can’t do better.

Successful hiring decisions start with structured interviews

Structured interviews are designed to evaluate candidates’ job-related skills, without taking into account criteria proven not to determine job success, such as demographics information or educational background. In structured interviews, job competencies are predetermined for each role. Then, each candidate is asked the same questions, in the same order. Finally, all candidates are evaluated in the same manner. The consistency is why structured interviews are 2X more effective in predicting job performance than unstructured interviews. As a result, they make it possible for you to enhance both the quality and the fairness of your hiring decisions. At HireVue, we understand that creating structured interviews can be an overwhelming, cumbersome process. That’s why our team of I/O Psychologists and Data Scientists created HireVue Structured Interview Builder, a solution that allows you to easily identify the right competencies, interview questions, and evaluation criteria for every interview. With HireVue Builder, hiring teams have access to HireVue’s comprehensive library full of job-related questions for specific roles, all vetted by IO Psychologists and independently audited. Or hiring teams can use their own custom competencies and questions so hiring teams evaluate candidates on clearly defined knowledge and skills in the same way — ensuring you stay compliant, fair, and fast. HireVue Builder empowers recruiters and hiring managers to transform informal candidate interview discussions into a well-thought-out, standardized process. And it gives candidates a more equitable opportunity to demonstrate their qualifications—enhancing quality and reducing bias.

How HireVue Builder enhances quality

Structured interviews create consistency across candidate evaluations and greatly improves accuracy of data. Over time, employee data will be collected and job competencies can be updated, allowing structured interviews to find quality talent much more accurately than traditional methods.

How HireVue Builder reduces bias

Structured interviews give candidates an equal opportunity to demonstrate their qualifications by asking the same questions to each candidate and assessing the responses based strictly on job-related criteria. The result? Higher profitability and more innovative teams.

How HireVue Builder improves the hiring process

Auto-generates interview content

Often, when a new position becomes available, hiring managers spend countless hours aligning their job descriptions, interview questions, and evaluations with the desired job competencies—or worse, they just wing it. The process is time consuming and subject to errors. HireVue Builder automatically generates job-related proficiencies, interview questions, and evaluation benchmarks based on job title and level. Not only does this simplify the manual criteria mapping process for hiring teams, and help them identify the best candidates to interview quickly and accurately -- it also saves interviewers 40 minutes per interview, according to Google.

Evaluates candidates based on clearly-defined job attributes

Historically, hiring managers have approached interviewing by engaging in unstructured conversations and asking questions as they seem appropriate. This reduces the chance for candidates to be assessed accurately and fairly based on their skills and talents. HireVue Builder creates a standard framework for every interview by aligning job-related skills to interview questions and evaluation criteria. This predetermined scoring system helps hiring teams easily identify quality talent and make more effective hiring decisions.

Reduces unconscious bias and creates fair hiring outcomes

Companies must be intentional about fighting unconscious bias at every step of the interview process. A recent case review reported that nearly half of unstructured interviews were found discriminatory compared to only 13% of structured interviews. HireVue Builder recommends 2-6 questions—vetted by IO Psychologists and independently audited—that evaluate candidates strictly on their job-related competencies. Hiring teams can also use their own custom competencies and questions. This empowers recruiters and hiring managers to make decisions based on skills—not similarities—and ensures that the interview process is both fair and equitable, from the beginning. HireVue’s pre-recorded video questions automate the interview even more, refining the candidate experience by humanizing the interview and improving accessibility.

Improves compliance and legal defensibility throughout the hiring process

Inconsistent hiring practices are a major concern for legal and compliance reasons. Without a process in place, interpretation of spontaneous interview questions can lead to litigation risks. HireVue Builder’s process treats all candidate’s the same, reducing the risk of discrimination. It helps recruiters and hiring managers collect candidate evaluation notes and competency ratings and ensures that their processes are administered and documented appropriately.

Set up your systematized hiring process with HireVue Builder

A structured interview process is no longer nice to have—it’s a must. Not only will it simplify your hiring process, it will also ensure that your company is both compliant and fair. With a continued commitment to effective, efficient, and ethical hiring practices, HireVue Builder empowers companies to put a clear structure in place, mitigating the risk of a bad hire. Learn more about HireVue Builder. Request a demo to see how HireVue can help you set up a faster, fairer, friendlier hiring process.

FAQs

Continue reading to learn more about structured interviewing and its advantages using HireVue Builder.

What is a structured interview?

A structured interview is one where all necessary job-related skills and questions are predetermined. Candidates are asked the same questions in the same order in order to evaluate candidates on relevant job related competencies.

What is a semi-structured interview?

A semi-structured interview is one where only some of the questions are pre-determined. After the predetermined questions are asked, interviewers ask more general questions around themes that are appropriate for the job. Interviewees may express themselves more freely and ask questions back to the interviewer.

How do I conduct a structured interview?

A structured interview requires interviewers to follow a predetermined process. This includes developing a standardized process that all interviewers adhere to for every candidate. This may include job-related questions, candidate analysis questions, and measurement metrics to grade each candidate evenly and fairly.

What are some sample questions used in structured interviews?

What are three words that best describe you in a professional capacity?
When have you faced a difficult situation at work?
What do you think will be your biggest challenge in this job?
Describe a time when you helped to lead or coach others.
Please describe a time you had to change your course of action while working on an assignment, and what was the outcome?

What are the advantages of a structured interview?

Structured interviewing allows for standardized quality, comparison, and fairness. There will be no bias, and interviewers are more effective at hiring quality workers. It also allows multiple interviewers to conduct interviews for the same role and remain consistent throughout the interview process.

What is HireVue structured interview builder?

HireVue Builder is a structured interview builder tool that allows businesses to more easily determine the right job competencies, evaluation criteria, and interview questions to find quality hires at any level. This allows hiring teams to build effective, job-specific interviews quickly and hire the right candidates fast.

Are there any disadvantages to a structured interview?

Structured interviewing is imperative for not only simplifying the hiring process but ensuring that it stays legal and fair for all potential candidates. There aren't any notable disadvantages to this process. However, a structured interview process can be enhanced by more qualitative semi-structured interview questions, helping to more completely evaluate preferred candidates.