The war for talent has morphed into a complex game of chess, where the right moves can determine your organization's future. With recent layoffs in tech, now more than ever it's vital to have a candidate evaluation playbook that works for you.

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Creating a well-defined process that evaluates every candidate on an even playing field is not easy. However, a great place to start is by figuring out what criteria are important in evaluating potential hires. These can be technical skills, soft skills, education, and certifications, or maybe something more specific like industry experience or years of coding.

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Once you've established what you're looking for in a candidate, you need to create an evaluation structure and interview process that allows you to assess each candidate objectively. At the same time, it's important to make sure everyone involved in the process is on the same page and understands the criteria being used to evaluate candidates.

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How to evaluate a candidate in a job interview:

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When it comes to evaluating a candidate in a job interview, there are several factors you'll need to consider. First and foremost is the candidate's technical skills and knowledge. Does this person have the necessary background and experience to do the job? If not, can they learn what is required quickly? The same goes for soft skills; does the candidate have the right attitude and personality to fit into the team?

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Beyond technical and soft skills, you'll also want to evaluate a candidate's presence and communication style. Are they articulate and effective in expressing their ideas? Can they think on their feet and handle difficult questions?

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One of the most important factors in an evaluation process, and one that's most difficult to measure is the candidate's extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivational drivers. Extrinsic means someone is motivated by external forces, like money or recognition. Intrinsic motivations are more internal, such as the desire to learn new things or make a difference in the world.

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Does the candidate have an internal desire to learn and grow? Are they motivated by the challenge of the job or do they just want a paycheck? Asking semi-structured questions that uncover these deeper motivational drivers can be extremely helpful in evaluating how well someone would fit with your team. For example, if your executive team manages in a "hands-on" way, then an employee who's internally motivated can get frustrated feeling like they're not trusted and micro-managed. Conversely, extrinsically driven employees can get burnt out and frustrated if they're not rewarded with executive interaction and praise. These types of characteristics are vital to a positive company culture and should be taken into account when evaluating a candidate's fit.

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At the end of the day, there's no perfect recipe for candidate evaluation and choosing the right hire. However, understanding what kind of skills and motivations matter most to you can help you make better decisions, faster. And, with the help of interview intelligence software, you can streamline the entire process, while still getting the insights you need to make an informed hiring decision.

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Candidate Evaluation Template

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Last week, I flew from Indianapolis to Miami. Sitting at the gate, my perspective of the world was only at ground level. But when we reached our cruising altitude of more than 30,000 feet, I could see for miles and had a completely different perspective than when we were on the ground. Creating a candidate evaluation template is similar. When screening a candidate, we need a 30,000-foot view of their basic qualifications for the role, but as we move closer to making an offer, it's important to gain a more in-depth perspective on their overall fit.

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Using a candidate evaluation template is an essential part of any successful recruitment process. It allows you to clearly define the criteria you want to assess in each candidate, as well as how they scored against those criteria.

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Your template should include a few key components:

• The specific skills and qualifications that are absolutely necessary for the job.

• Any personal or professional qualities that are desirable for the role.

• Questions you want to ask in the interview, such as what motivates them and how they handle difficult situations.

• A scoring system to rate each candidate's qualifications against your criteria.

• Room for notes about their experience and personality.

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For more information on creating a candidate scorecard check out, "Interview Scorecards," a complete guide to creating an overall assessment for candidates with examples and resources.

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When scoring a candidate, take into account the skills they have as well as their professional and personal qualities. Do they have the right attitude and personality to fit into your team? Most importantly, do they have the intrinsic motivation to learn, grow, and succeed in this role?

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At the end of the day, a candidate evaluation template is only as useful as its implementation. Utilizing candidate assessment tools like interview intelligence software makes it easier to organize and analyze the data from your evaluations, giving you a more holistic view of each candidate's fit for the role.

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Candidate Evaluation Summary

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At the end of your interview process, you'll want to compare candidates side-by-side to make a hiring decision. Your candidate evaluation summary should help you do just that. After rating candidates on the skills and qualifications, they need to succeed in the role, as well as their professional and personal qualities, you'll have a better idea of which one is the right fit for your team.

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If you're like many of the technology and software companies that we work with, your evaluation process will look something like this:

1. Initial Candidate Screening
2. First Interview
3. Panel (or) Team Interview
4. Assessment (or) Test
5. Reference Checks
6. Final Interview

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Each of these interactions should give you the opportunity to evaluate a candidate's qualifications, skills, and qualities. At the end of this process, you'll have plenty of data points to use in making an informed hiring decision. Make sure you document your observations carefully and comprehensively so that they’re easy to refer back to later.

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If you've built an effective process, evaluating candidates after the interview should be as simple as comparing scorecards. This is where a candidate evaluation template really comes in handy. It makes it easy to compare apples to apples and quickly get a sense of which candidates are the best match for this role so you can make better hires.

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Pillar has helped our customers lower employee turnover by 50% over the past 12 months. We've done this by creating a video interview platform that includes lists of over 1000 semi-structured questions tailored specifically to the titles you're hiring. These questions can be used as prompts in the interview keeping your conversations with candidates on track and fair for every candidate. We use the power of Ai (artificial intelligence) to analyze each interview, giving you reliable candidate scores that go beyond the traditional scorecard.

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If you want to reduce employee turnover, optimize your recruitment process and make better hires, schedule a demo today. We have a complete candidate evaluation process that will transform how you assess applicants and help you make better hires.

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Candidate Evaluation Process

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Screening and evaluating candidates is one of the most important steps in hiring. As software has overtaken many industries, the candidate evaluation process has changed. A few years ago, it seemed like the only thing that mattered was the degree. Now, experience, certifications, cultural traits, preferred work style, and a person's ability to quickly learn and understand new concepts are just as important.

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We recommend beginning this process with the end in mind. If your goal is to hire the most qualified and best-fitting candidate for the role, you'll need to create a comprehensive recruitment process that evaluates candidates on their skills, qualifications, and personal characteristics.

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After you have a comprehensive template for evaluating candidates, it's time to implement the process. At each step of your interview process, you will use the information collected in the previous stage to determine if they are suitable for the role. Here's how:

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First, start with a preliminary screening. This should be done as early on as possible in the process. During this phase, you'll want to assess a few key criteria quickly and efficiently, such as qualifications and experience for the role. This will help filter out any candidates who are clearly not a good fit before investing time into an interview process.

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Second, move on to interviews. Your goal here should be to gain further insight into a candidate's skills, qualifications, and experiences. This is also the phase where you can assess soft skills, such as communication and problem-solving abilities. Focus on having meaningful conversations with your potential hire so that you can get an accurate sense of their suitability for the role.

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Finally, use assessments and tests to round off the evaluation. This could include online personality tests, skills assessments, and other forms of testing that can help you evaluate a candidate's technical and soft skills.

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By taking the time to set up an effective candidate evaluation process, you'll be able to quickly identify the right person for any position - saving valuable resources in the long run. With Pillar, you can create a customizable evaluation template that allows you to quickly and accurately assess each candidate, or use our pre-built, automated processes. Plus, our AI-driven scoring system helps you make sure your hiring process is as fair and equitable as possible. Click here to chat with someone on our team today and see if Pillar is right for you.

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