Preparing Interview Questions

Before the interview the Panel Chair should convene a meeting of the interview panel to plan carefully the questions that are going to be asked. It is important that the questions cover all the areas on the person specification in order to assess whether the candidate meets all of the essential criteria needed for the post.

Interview Questions

Careful consideration of the questions will help ensure that the right information is gathered in order to make an informed decision. Use the criteria’s set out in the person specification at the start of the recruitment process as the basis for question development.

Start with the essential criteria, and design a question (or series of questions) to test for evidence of the candidate’s abilities in each area. A few questions that would test some of the desirable criteria are useful as a tool to differentiate between suitable candidates.

When writing questions ensure that you know what response you are anticipating, so that you can fairly assess how full an answer the candidates give. Be prepared to probe further or reword questions.

All interviews should use open questions which encourage the candidate to talk. These begin with words like who, what, which, where, why or how, with phrases like ‘tell me about...'

Open questions are useful because they invite expression of ideas, views and opinions and can encourage reticent interviewees to talk. However they also are more difficult to answer so the interviewee may need thinking time and can also give broad answers.

Competency based questioning is a good technique to use. This is based on the idea that the best guide to future performance is past behaviour. It seeks examples of how an individual has worked previously in order to see whether they will demonstrate the skills required for this job.

It is important that the questions are not leading or discriminatory.  Beware of asking hypothetical questions as these lead to hypothetical answers which may not reveal much about the interviewee’s actual experience.  Candidates who describe what they ‘might’ do are likely to give textbook answers rather than show what they would do in reality.

Avoid closed questions that invite solely ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers, unless these are used to check the answers previously given.

The same questions should be asked of all candidates to ensure consistency and enable the panel to assess the level to which candidates match the criteria, and make an informed and fair recruitment decision.

Interviewees will answer the questions in a slightly different way. Therefore, probing questions can be asked of the individual candidates to explore their responses.

The panel might also agree to ask some questions of certain candidates that are specific to their application, or individual circumstances. Care must be taken to ensure that such questions do not breach our Equality Diversity and Inclusion Policy, or any employment legislation.

Questions should be structured to explore facts, and interviewers should take care not to make decisions based on assumptions about applicants linked to their own subjective views and opinions.

An example of interview scoresheet is available from the Downloadable Documents section.

DO

• Design questions to check facts, obtain relevant information about each applicant's working background, test achievements and assess aptitude and potential.
• Ask specific questions on matters such as the applicant's work experience, qualifications, skills, abilities, ambitions and strengths/weaknesses.
• Ask open questions, i.e. those beginning with "what", "which", "why", "how", "where", "when" and "who", rather than closed questions inviting only a "yes" or "no" answer. E.g. What gave you most satisfaction in your last job?; What have been the most significant developments in this area in recent years?
• Ask questions that are challenging, but never ask them in an intimidating or aggressive tone or manner.
• Ask questions that require the applicant to give examples of real situations that they have experienced, for example: "Tell me about a time when you had to discipline a member of your staff. How did you handle it?"
• Ask factual questions about past experience and behaviour and refrain from making assumptions.

AVOID

• using ‘closed or ‘leading’ questions, e.g.Do you think that is a good idea? So, you graduated last year?
• Asking ‘marathon’ or ‘multiple’ questions such as:
  How does your current job compare with your last one, which aspect presented greatest difficulty and how difficult did you find it to keep up to date?

DO NOT
Ask any questions which might have discriminatory implications i.e. relating to the candidates’ sex, race or health disability either directly or indirectly.

The panel should assume that candidates can meet the requirements as set out in the specification. Any areas of concern about an individual’s circumstances can be explored if an offer of employment is to be initiated.