During a recruitment interview, it is important to be able to effectively identify the skills, assets and strengths of your candidates. It is also crucial to be able to effectively compare the information gathered with your job description and the essential skills you are looking for. To do this, it is necessary to use an effective tool such as the recruitment interview evaluation grid. When well prepared in advance, the latter can become a real tool and a major ally in optimizing your interviews and, by extension, your recruitment process.
It can also be a good way to fight against cognitive biases that you may have during interviews.
Discover our tips for creating an effective recruitment interview evaluation grid.
Determine your need.
First of all, it is important to structure your assessment grid by listing all the important points to consider for the position.
You can use our list below as a guide, but you can also discuss it with your colleagues, who are often in the field, to get more concrete feedback on the skills and assets that the position requires.
Structure your assessment grid.
Once your list is complete, move on to structuring and scoring. You can do this by creating categories that group each of the common criteria.
For example, one category for all technical criteria, another for presentation and interpersonal skills, etc.
You can create as many categories as you need, but be careful not to lock yourself into the evaluation grid during the entire interview. You must also leave room for spontaneous exchanges and keep an open mind.
Set up a rating system.
Next, choose a rating system that is appropriate for the position. This can be a score out of five for each criterion and then an overall average. Or a scoring system with a number of points awarded for each validated criterion.
Beware of indiscreet and/or illegal questions
Make sure that all your questions are legal and respect the integrity of the candidate. Thus, questions about origins, religion or sexual orientation are of course illegal. Your questions must be related to the position and the skills it requires. Avoid making the candidate feel uncomfortable. The consequences can be harmful, especially for your employer brand.
Evaluation categories and criteria
1 – Evaluation of the CV in terms of form
- General structure and readability of the CV
- Spelling and syntax
- Creativity (if necessary for the position)
2 – Evaluation of the content of the CV: training and experience
- Quality and relevance of the training
- Number of years of experience
- Relevance of experience to the position
- Technical and computer skills
- Other skills useful for the position
3 – Evaluation during the interview
Presentation of the candidate
- Punctuality
- General presentation
- Courtesy
- Relational skills
- Eloquence
Knowledge of the company and the position: did the candidate prepare well for the interview?
- Knowledge of the company and its products/services
- Understanding of the position and the missions
- Preparation for the interview
- Expectations of the hierarchy, of the future manager.
- Relevance of the answers, which implies research and preparation for the interview
The hards skills essential to the position
- Technical skills of the position
- Mastery of the software and computer tools used in the context of the missions
The candidate’s soft skills
- Relational skills and stress management
- Reactivity to a situation
- Ability to listen
- Ability to argue
- Teamwork, autonomy, organization, etc.
The candidate’s motivation
- Dynamism and involvement
- Commitment during the interview (questions about the position, the missions, the company)
Salary expectations and availability of the candidate
- Availability
- Salary expectations
To go further
If you use recruitment software such as jobaffinity, you can integrate your evaluation grid into your candidate file as an attachment or directly into your notes. This way, all the information about your candidates is centralized in a single tool.
