Interview rating scales, also known as candidate scorecards, are a great way to objectively evaluate your candidates. These scales allow you to rate different aspects of a candidate's interview performance and express your opinion in a quantitative fashion - for instance, if you're hiring an Account Executive (AE), and they have no previous experience with sales tools, you may rate them a 1 (out of 5) on a rating scale. Now, if they have previous SaaS sales experience, and a "close rate" higher than most of your other talent pool, you may rate them a 4 or 5 (out of 5). This allows you to quickly and easily compare different candidates' performance at a glance.

Creating a candidate scorecard, or interview rating scale, is simple, but not easy. A good place to begin is by designing a scale of the qualifications and skills you’re looking for in your ideal candidate. This could include traits like leadership ability, communication, problem-solving, and more.

Ideally, you would design a scale that only measures 1-3 (OR) 1-5 (1 being the lowest, 5 being the highest) so that you don't have many options and decision fatigue. To expand upon this idea, if you make the scale from 1 to 100, you create many opportunities for nuance and interviewer answers will show up all across the scale. 1-3/ 1-5 gives you basic feedback and defined follow-up action.

In any key areas of success - If the candidate is a 1, they exit the process. If they're a 2, they continue on, if they're a 3 they move to the top of the talent pool. Simplifications like this will make the interviewer rating scale easier for everyone on your team when collecting feedback and ultimately coming to a decision.

Overall, the interview rating scale should help you evaluate candidates objectively and quickly. Pillar's interview intelligence software can help you create and use these rating scales in a sophisticated, organized manner - allowing you to make data-driven hiring decisions. They even allow you to post interviewer comments after interviews which will be helpful to the team as they make hiring decisions.

Once you have this feedback, you have to make a decision- does the candidate move forward in the interview process, or do they exit it? If the candidate is unsuccessful in an interview, the best practice would be to provide interview feedback so they can prepare and improve before their next round of interviews.

Examples of interview feedback for unsuccessful candidates that you might provide include constructive advice about their answers, helpful hints for how to answer certain types of questions, and specific tips for how they can improve. Pillar and other solutions can help you automate these emails as they're often hard to send - but we recommend typing a few sentences about how they can improve, in addition to the automated response.

Assessment After Interview Example

So you've just completed an interview with a candidate, now what? In this section, we're going to talk about completing the assessment (if you haven't already), how to rate interview candidates, and the deciding factors to moving a candidate down the funnel. One of the reasons Pillar has become a mainstay of many hiring tech stacks is the ability to complete the candidate scorecard with data backed by Ai analytics tools while in the interview. This saves the interviewer time and allows for more focused dialogue during the interview.

When assessing a candidate, it is important to go through each criterion set and rate them objectively on that criterion. Depending on the scale you've chosen, you can assign a numerical score for each criterion so that you can return to it later and share it with the relevant stakeholders on your team.

We talked a bit about the scale in the previous section, now let's talk about how to rate interview candidates. If you're just starting out, at minimum, begin with the top 5 skills a candidate must possess for them to be successful in the role. Going back to the AE position earlier, let's pull the top 5 skills that would make a mid-level sales executive effective in a role.

1. Effective Communication,
2. Sales and Closing Skills,
3. Efficient use of the Technology and Platforms used in the role - Lead Generation, Email Outreach, CRM, etc.
4. Analytic & Problem-Solving Skills,
5. and, Leadership Ability.

When looking for someone to do a job, there are certain qualities they should have. Make a list of the five most important qualities and rank them from most important to least important. This will help you decide if someone is the right fit for the job or not.

Let's go deeper and look at an assessment after the interview example. The "decision-making process." If your startup is currently raising a series A round of funding, then the top priority on your to-do list is likely to close deals in order to meet your revenue goals. Keep in mind that a prospect who lacks sales experience is not as valuable as someone who has a proven track record, so the candidate may rank 1 out of 5 in this category. A 1 out of 5 in the key category would result in an immediate exit from the process, while a 4 or 5 will warrant further interviews.

Interview Guidelines for Interviewers

Now that understand the basic criteria for interview evaluation, let's look at some different guidelines that will make your hiring process smoother and more efficient. We'll also build an example interview criteria checklist.

Interview Guidelines for Interviewers:

One of the first things I tell interviewers is, "Begin with curiosity." When it comes to the hiring process, curiosity will uncover more meaningful information about a candidate and can help you make better hiring decisions. A curious approach will keep you interested and ask deep questions that showcase who a candidate really is, what they've truly accomplished, and what drives them. People have a hard time hiding things from people who show genuine interest in them so a posture of curiosity will pay huge dividends.

Second, don't be afraid to ask open-ended questions that allow the candidate to explain their thought process. These will give you insights into the way they think and work which is incredibly valuable when making a hire. Critical and analytical thinking skills as well as problem-solving skills are derived from thought processes. Understanding the way a candidate reaches a conclusion can tell you more about their potential than anything else.

Finally, make sure you have an interviewer checklist that includes things like asking the candidate to provide relevant examples of work they've done in the past (not just what's on their resume), explaining how they overcame certain challenges, and any other additional questions that will help further assess them. Having a structured interview process with predefined questions is important for consistency and accuracy and is one of the primary benefits of using Pillar as your interview intelligence solution.

Since Pillar's candidate scoring platform, uses Ai analytics across all your interviews, you'll have a data-driven assessment of each candidate that will help make the best decisions for hiring.

Having an interview rating scale and guidelines for interviewing are both important parts of any successful recruitment process. By using Pillar to automate key parts of the hiring process, you can get valuable insights into each candidate's performance and save time on administrative tasks. This means you can focus on the important stuff - building relationships with candidates and choosing the best person for the job.

Guidelines for Effective Interviewing

HR interview questions are a key part of the hiring process and they go hand-in-hand with the guidelines for effective interviewing. Asking the right questions will help you find out what kind of person they are and whether they’re a good fit for the job. Here are some guidelines to follow when interviewing:

- Ask open-ended questions that encourage candidates to talk about their experience, skills, and accomplishments
- Listen carefully and pay attention to the candidates’ answers
- Take notes systematically and make sure to ask follow-up questions
- Encourage all candidates to speak comfortably and openly by keeping a positive attitude throughout the interview
- Make sure every candidate has an equal amount of time in the spotlight
- Lastly, remember that interviews are two-way conversations – both you and the candidate should be engaging with each other throughout the process.

By following these guidelines, you can ensure that your interviews are productive and efficient. You’ll also have a better sense of which candidates are best suited to join your team!

The combination of the interview rating scale and interviewing guidelines is essential for a successful recruitment process. With Pillar's interview rating system and a suite of candidate scoring solutions, you can quickly generate data-driven insights into each candidate's performance, which will help you make the best decisions for your team.

In conclusion, having an interview rating scale and interviewing guidelines are essential when it comes to recruiting the right people for a job. Using these tools combined with Pillar’s automated candidate scoring system will help you make the most informed decisions and find the best fit for your team.

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