How to evaluate a candidate during the recruitment process?

You need to recruit a new employee to grow your team and production, but you don't know where to start. It can be stressful and time-consuming. At Marvin Recruiter , we want to make recruitment simple and efficient!

In this article, we'll explore how to qualify and evaluate a candidate during your recruitment process, from the interview to the final selection. We'll move beyond the traditional CV and cover letter to better understand your candidate and avoid recruitment mistakes .

The essentials:

• Any good candidate qualification begins with a clear and detailed job description .
• To assess motivation , study their non-verbal communication and their involvement during role-playing scenarios.
• To assess your candidate's technical skills , refer to an interview grid with the required skills and experience and do not hesitate to have them take assessment tests.

A candidate's qualification process begins before the interview

Recruitment can take time and may require you to put some tasks aside while you search for the perfect candidate.

Before embarking on a recruitment process, ensure you have a well-defined strategy to minimize wasted time and unnecessary interviews. Such a strategy should be decided upon and implemented well in advance.

It is based on a real assessment of the recruitment need , the creation of a clear and detailed job description and the development of a precise recruitment process that will allow you to filter your potential candidates and keep only the best at each stage.

Assessing the need allows you to justify recruitment within a specific department and for precise tasks. This enables you to evaluate the potential losses if you don't recruit someone for a given position. You can then identify the tasks to delegate and the expertise you are seeking .

From this exploration and validation phase will emerge drafts of a job description seniority level . You must not stop there.

To best screen your candidates before interviews, write a clear and detailed job description the responsibilities and desired profile . This will prevent you from wasting time on profiles and talents that don't match your requirements.

In this job description, include:

• the usefulness of the position
• their status (ETAM, manager...)
• his position in the organizational chart
• working conditions
• the company presentation
• missions and responsibilities
• the team presentation
• the technical skills and interpersonal abilities sought
• the counterparts

In this regard, feel free to compare your job description with those of similar companies.

Finally, regarding the recruitment process itself, you will need to define your guidelines : how you will recruit (headhunting firm, open/spontaneous applications, publication in the "careers" section of your website, etc.) and what characteristics you will test at each stage of the process.

Qualify your candidates even before the first interview

To optimize your recruitment efforts, the initial steps are crucial. Having a and sufficient candidates is the cornerstone of an effective recruitment process. Effective sourcing

To achieve this, simple and quick strategies can be implemented. Keep in mind that candidate sourcing can take up to 50% of your time. To make this time as productive as possible, you can rely on three proven practices:

• Source your candidates effectively using Boolean search . This allows you to select only the profiles that truly match your recruitment needs. Marvin lets you populate your candidate pool with a single click.
• Perform an initial candidate matching process using an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) like Marvin Recruiter. Leveraging your candidate database saves a tremendous amount of time. A clean and high-quality database will only increase the return on investment. Marvin allows you to find qualified candidates in just a few clicks thanks to its advanced search capabilities.
• Develop pre-interview recruitment tests . Whether they are personality tests, psychometric tests, or skills assessments, they allow you to evaluate the precise skills and expertise levels of your candidates. These assessments automatically filter potential candidates to determine who you wish to recruit. According to a study by Apec, 31% of recruiters across all sectors use this type of simulation.

At this point, here are three questions you can ask yourself: 

1. What are my minimum requirements for a recruit to be considered potentially acceptable?
2. What skills and qualities would elevate an acceptable recruit to the level of an excellent employee?
3. What are the signs or “red flags” that would indicate a candidate is not a good fit for the position or the company, and how can they be identified before an interview?

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Evaluate your qualified candidates step by step

Once a limited number of candidates have been selected, the next step is to assess second-order professional skills human aptitudes .

To optimize all your interviews and achieve a good balance between time management and information gathering, use an interview guide . An interview guide is a framework that lists all the professional skills and information sought for a specific position.

At a glance, you can tell whether a profile is a good fit for a given position. The interview grid serves as the guiding thread for analyzing your candidates throughout your interactions.

The interview grid allows you to better structure your exchanges in order to be more efficient, to target important points, and to communicate more easily with your colleagues.

Before going into detail, make sure you have properly constructed your interview grid. To do this, coordinate with your colleagues on the expectations and needs related to the position , the rating system , and the interview format, depending on the role.

An interview grid is not fixed; it must be adapted to each type of position. 

Personality interviews 

At this stage, it's crucial to ensure the potential candidate aligns with the company culture and values . Use these interviews to get to know them better and explore their interpersonal skills.

These " soft skills " are just as important, as they contribute to the success of missions and the effective dissemination of information within the team, according to a study by Zety. Platforms exist for this purpose, such as Central Test, Innermetrix, Performanse, and PAPI.

You can also ask your candidate about the following points:

1. Describe a time when he/she demonstrated cooperation and conflict management skills
2. How does he/she behave in the face of radical change? (change of office, change of manager, change of tools...)
3. What is his greatest strength?

This involves assessing their ability to communicate , manage their emotions , make decisions , and adapt .

The so-called “technical” interviews

Technical interviews, on the other hand, serve to ensure the candidate's actual qualifications for the position. They involve testing the technical skills required for the defined tasks. 

At this stage, prefer a candidate who knows their strengths and weaknesses and is not afraid to be honest by admitting they do not master a skill, rather than a smooth talker who will only talk about their qualities.

Depending on the position, you may carry out application exercises (technical tests), case studies or even simulations of real-life situations in order to test the skills of a candidate.

At this stage, here are three questions you can ask yourself:

• Does the candidate have any skills gaps? If so, is it due to interview stress or a lack of knowledge? Could this gap be filled through training ?
• Has the candidate been able to demonstrate the skills and professional experience mentioned on their CV?
• Is he capable of quickly and independently analyzing the problem and providing a clear and concise answer?

At this stage, analytical, technical and project management skills

Team interviews

Finally, one of the last major categories of interviews is the on-site meeting with the teams . At this stage, you should already be reassured about the technical skills and interpersonal abilities of your potential recruits.

Be careful here. While it's certainly important to recruit someone whose values ​​align with those of current employees, you shouldn't homogenize or homogenize your team. Encourage a diversity of opinions , backgrounds , and interests within your team.

You can check these points by asking yourself questions like:

1. What added value will he or she bring to his or her team?
2. How does he collaborate with his colleagues?
3. What would his former superior say about his way of working and collaborating?

candidate's ability to integrate their compatibility with the rest of the team.

Make sure your candidate is motivated

Throughout your recruitment process, it is important to keep in mind the evaluation of your candidate's motivation

In this respect, non-verbal communication is your ally. It encompasses all behaviors , gestures, and postures during your interactions. It can be quite easy to spot a lack of motivation or, conversely, unwavering motivation.

To do this, you can ask yourself the following questions:

1. Does the person look you in the eyes when they speak to you?
2. Does your candidate have an active attitude (upright posture, leaning forward, taking notes...)?
3. What motivates you to apply for our job offer? (Why change positions, what motivates you daily, your main objective...)

This final step helps minimize the risks of a bad hire and high turnover. Indeed, motivation is a key factor in the overall success of your team and your company.

Conclusion

You now have all the tools you need to qualify and evaluate your candidates at every stage of the recruitment process. To maintain a lasting and collaborative record of your interactions, remember to complete your interview grid and assign scores to your exchanges and the skills tested. 

If you want to better leverage and evaluate your candidates, discover Marvin Recruiter software . Our goal is to cut your sourcing time in half!