Structured Interview: What It Is and Why to Use It in Personnel Selection

The structured interview, also known as the standardized interview, is popular for its impartiality and, as the name indicates, its standardization, making it a very effective personnel selection technique. It is almost twice as effective as a traditional interview, and it tends to be used when the employer seeks to study each candidate equitably and evaluate factors that may be hard to measure by other methods.

During the interview, each candidate is asked the same series of questions previously designed by the recruiter. These questions are correlated with the needs of the company and are asked in a joint or standardized order. The interviewer is strictly faithful to the schedule set for the interview and does not do separate tests, so it may be a somewhat inflexible method for the interviewee.

This evaluation method allows the employer to systematically measure the applicant's behavior and experience when facing past or hypothetical situations that may occur in the company's work environment. The interview is structured so that the employer can obtain answers to the same questions, but at the same time offer the interviewee a personalized experience.

How is a structured interview conducted?

• The personal and professional skills required for each position are determined, using the job requirements to create predetermined questions.

• A series of questions is created that will allow us to evaluate the candidate's personal and professional skills. Generally, behavioral or situational questions are used, rather than open-ended questions.

• A rating scale is created.

• The questions and rating tools are distributed to the interviewer

• Candidates are evaluated using the rating scale, rather than being guided by our intuition or our general perception of the candidate.

Factors that can be analyzed through the interview

• Attention to detail. Is the candidate able to keep track of their responsibilities in the company? For example, schedules, tasks, short and long term objectives among others.

• Behavioral characteristics. Does the candidate prefer to participate in the formulation of the plan or just carry it out? What is their definition of success? How do they measure their success? How do they achieve their objectives? What role do they usually play in a group meeting or discussion?

• Critical thinking. Ask the interviewee to tell you about a time when they faced competing deadlines at work. How did they handle it? How did they come to that conclusion?

• Ask for an example of a decision they had to make quickly or under pressure. How did they approach it? Ask the candidate to tell you about a mistake they made in a past job, which they regret. What happened and what did they learn from that mistake? If they did not think they could meet the expected deadline, what did they do about it? Ask for an example.

Benefits of the structured interview over other types of interview

• Considering that the standardized parameters and values serve as a filter to identify the least qualified candidates, it is easier to compare the results of each candidate.

• This type of interview also evaluates key cognitive factors that demonstrate high probabilities of effectiveness in fulfilling the position.

• It offers the opportunity to evaluate the candidate's behavior and performance in previous or hypothetical situations in a completely systematic way.

• The questions are focused on the specific needs of the role.

• Thanks to the repetition system, the interviewer is able to counteract the subjective factors that tend to occur during a traditional interview.

• It also ensures that issues relating to discrimination can be avoided entirely, as all candidates are given equal opportunities to demonstrate their abilities. As a result, the interviewee feels more comfortable being evaluated in the same way as the other candidates.

The structured interview is a very useful technique in personnel selection. The ideal is to combine this technique with practical or knowledge assessments to get a complete view of the candidate's skills and competencies.