Finding the right person for a job is crucial. But traditional interviews can be hit-or-miss. That’s where the magic of the structured interview comes in. You’ll learn how to design a structured interview and how this method levels the playing field, making the hiring process fairer and more effective for everyone involved.
From my years of experience hiring, interviewing hundreds of candidates, and building a structured interview, I can confidently tell you this approach delivers better results than a freewheeling conversation. So, whether you’re a hiring manager or a job seeker, let’s take a look at why structured interviews matter and how they can transform your approach to recruitment.
Need to Hire Someone?
Are you a hiring manager or recruiter. Looking for great candidates close to you? Then just click to button to post a job. 1st job posting is FREE!
Table Of Contents:
- What Does Structured Interview Mean?
- The Advantages of Structured Interviews for Hiring
- The Key Elements of a Structured Interview
- Why This Approach Benefits Candidates, Too
- FAQs about structured interview
- Conclusion
What Does Structured Interview Mean?
A structured interview involves a predetermined set of questions. This interview structure ensures consistency and objectivity throughout the process, with every candidate facing the same questions in the same order. Unlike casual conversations, where the topics might veer off course, a structured interview remains laser-focused on assessing specific job-related competencies.
This isn’t a new idea. It goes back to 1947 when researcher Robert McMurray first explored what he called “patterned interviews.” The concept evolved with technology to include video interviewing, both live and pre-recorded. With the right tools, structuring your interviews brings a host of benefits for both sides of the table.
The Advantages of Structured Interviews for Hiring
Reduces Bias and Promotes Fairness
We’ve all got unconscious biases. It’s just how our brains work. A structured interview shines because the standardized format makes it difficult for biases to creep into your evaluation. It ensures everyone gets the same opportunity.
You assess candidates solely on their responses to those pre-set questions, fostering a fair and equal hiring process. No wonder a study in the International Journal of Selection and Assessment found that unstructured interviews were the interview types that were most often challenged in court.
Increases Efficiency and Saves Time
Think about it this way: having to create new questions for every interview can be time-consuming and inefficient. With a structured interview process, the legwork is upfront. You carefully design the questions based on job requirements, just as if you were creating clear, detailed sales interview questions.
After you have this structured interview template, you can reuse it consistently, streamlining your entire interview and candidate evaluation process. This saves your team significant time and effort, which can now be used for other tasks.
Leads to Better Hiring Decisions
You’re not relying on gut feelings here. This process enables you to dig into a candidate’s true capabilities by using specific, targeted job interview questions about their past experiences. You compare them directly to job requirements you clearly outlined during a thorough job analysis.
This is especially helpful when conducting structured interviews for critical roles where common interview questions aren’t going to provide you with deep, helpful answers. A study by the Journal of Applied Psychology discovered something quite remarkable: when it comes to accurately predicting job performance, a single structured interview outperformed three or four unstructured ones.
Improves Candidate Experience
Believe it or not, even candidates prefer this. Because everyone has the same questions, the process feels transparent. Job seekers know you’re using an unbiased approach focused solely on job skills rather than whims, personal preferences, or subjective judgments.
It levels the playing field and builds trust. This positive experience translates to a better overall impression of your company, even for those you don’t ultimately hire. Deloitte tells us that if a candidate is unhappy, they are likely to talk. 80% will vent their frustrations about their bad experience to at least one person. That’s not the kind of reputation any business wants.
The Key Elements of a Structured Interview
Okay, so a structured interview makes the process fairer, smoother, and more successful. But what are the nuts and bolts? How do you get started?
Thorough Job Analysis
This step is foundational. Define what the role requires before interviewing a single candidate. This analysis helps you develop relevant common interview questions. It clarifies the skills and competencies needed for success. With this groundwork in place, you’ll ensure all your interview questions are directly relevant to job duties, expectations, and success criteria.
Developing Standardized Questions
Consistency is everything. Carefully craft your set of interview questions to target those key competencies you defined during job analysis. Here, you’ll choose questions that will help you understand their approach to problems or to new challenges. Here’s an example:
| Interview Question | Targeted Competency |
|---|---|
| Describe a situation where you had to work under pressure to meet a deadline. How did you manage your time, and what was the outcome? | Problem-solving skills and time management |
| Give me an example of a time you had to resolve a conflict within a team. How did you approach the situation, and what did you learn from it? | Communication, conflict resolution, and teamwork skills |
Your interview process should provide insights into those deeper skills, especially for more technical or managerial positions. That’s why structured interviews can yield richer results than simple unstructured interviews questions which only give you surface information.
Objective Scoring System
Again, leave emotions at the door. Having a predetermined way to score answers means less room for gut feelings. Decide what constitutes excellent, good, and not-so-good answers for each competency area. Assign point values, scores, or ranking criteria. That way, each interviewer consistently evaluates every candidate using the same yardstick.
This can get tricky with complex interview processes that evaluate soft skills or more technical expertise, but doing this scoring work upfront significantly minimizes inconsistencies or any hint of favoritism during your hiring decisions.
Why This Approach Benefits Candidates, Too
While this might all sound a bit formal or even impersonal, structured interviews are actually better for candidates. This benefits them just as much as it benefits your business or organization. Here’s how:
Clear Expectations
Going into an interview, candidates hate the unknown. Structured interviews help to remove anxiety. Job seekers can better anticipate the type of questions they’ll face, which focuses their prep on highlighting relevant experiences. If you let them know the interview format beforehand, that can really put nervous interviewees at ease.
Equal Opportunity
Everyone knows the rules. All the candidates have a fair chance to impress based solely on those essential skills directly relevant to the job. This minimizes nervousness that they have to charm or improvise their way into impressing you.
They’re all given the same set of carefully constructed structured interview questions designed to help showcase what makes them stand out.
Increased Transparency
With a clearly defined, consistent approach, a structured interview removes any mystery or ambiguity. That feeling of, “I have no idea if they even liked me,” disappears, regardless of the outcome. Candidates know how they’re assessed.
This promotes a greater feeling of respect between them and your company, leaving a positive impression that they’ll take with them even if they aren’t ultimately the ones chosen for the job. After all, these individuals may become customers, apply for a different job in the future, or even network with you down the line, so keeping those relationships positive matters.
FAQs about structured interview
What is a structured and unstructured interview?
A structured interview utilizes a standardized approach where each candidate is asked the same set of job-relevant questions, scored according to an objective set of criteria, and delivered in a consistent, orderly manner. This helps minimize bias and improve the reliability of interview evaluations.
It’s also viewed by many job seekers as fairer because the selection criteria are very clearly presented upfront, not after the interview. In contrast, an unstructured interview format relies more heavily on organic conversations, meaning the content varies from candidate to candidate. They aren’t subject to specific guidelines, which makes consistency in scoring difficult and introduces greater opportunities for unintentional bias.
What is an example of a structured question?
Here are a couple of examples of structured interview questions based on common job-related skills:
1. “Describe a situation where you faced a difficult customer. What steps did you take to resolve the situation, and what was the outcome? This is designed to assess problem-solving and customer service skills.
2. “Tell me about a time you had to adapt to a sudden change in project requirements. How did you manage the situation, and what did you learn from it?” This evaluates the candidate’s flexibility, adaptability, and their willingness to take on new challenges.
A common thread in all these structured interview questions is that they require candidates to demonstrate their competency through real-world examples, providing tangible proof and not just theoretical understanding.
What is a basic structure interview?
A basic structured interview begins by clearly outlining essential skills from a detailed job analysis. It involves developing relevant, standardized interview questions targeting each competency area you need to evaluate, ideally a mix of situational and behavioral interview types.
Design a clear scoring system with pre-defined rating scales. Each interviewer will use the same interview questionnaire and evaluation system for all candidates. To further minimize any potential for unintentional biases, use multiple interviewers who then compare and discuss their independent scores after meeting each individual candidate.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of structured interviews?
The biggest advantage of structured interviews is increased objectivity and reduced bias during the selection process. The same set of pre-set interview questions is asked in the same order and scored using standardized metrics, which means that interviewers are less likely to rely on subjective interpretations.
Another key advantage is enhanced fairness, as all candidates are provided an equal opportunity to shine, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, or any protected attribute. Structured interviews are also very legally defensible since your documentation and rationale for decisions are much more transparent.
One perceived downside is that they sometimes lack the flexibility and spontaneity of less formal, more conversational interactions. But in truth, this apparent “strictness” can actually reduce interview anxiety because both the candidate and the interviewer are following a roadmap of exactly what to expect. And of course, an added bonus to having a well-defined interview structure in place is the increased efficiency and reduced administrative workload involved, especially once a clear scoring rubric is well-established.
Conclusion
Choosing a structured interview method in the hiring process can be a game-changer for everyone involved. From reducing unconscious biases to leading to better talent matches, it’s a strategy worth exploring. The bottom line? These interviews streamline the process, create more transparency and clarity, and enhance overall fairness and success. The beauty is that both job seekers and hiring teams alike see real benefits.
