The Strongest Principles and Practices in Interviewing Techniques

Key Challenges

Interviewing is crucial for HR professionals and line managers, shaping the workforce and driving organisational success. However, it comes with several challenges. One major issue is unconscious bias, which can distort the selection process, leading to unfair assessments based on stereotypes or assumptions. HR professionals often struggle to remain objective, especially when influenced by first impressions or personal preferences.

Another challenge is ensuring consistency and fairness. Interviewers may unintentionally vary their approach or questions across candidates, making it difficult to compare individuals fairly. This inconsistency can undermine the interview’s validity and lead to legal risks regarding discriminatory practices.

Time management is also a recurring problem. Tight schedules often result in rushed or poorly prepared interviews, compromising the quality of candidate evaluations. Finally, aligning cultural fit with technical competence presents a challenge. Striking the right balance between a candidate’s skills and their fit with the organisation’s values and team dynamics is essential, as poor decisions can have long-term negative effects on team performance and morale.

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Cast-Iron Principles in Interviewing for Any Position

When interviewing, certain principles must be upheld to ensure fairness, legality and effectiveness. One of the most critical is objectivity. Interviewers must assess candidates based on job-related skills and competencies, avoiding personal biases or assumptions. The Equal Treatment Directive (2006/54/EC) and other EU equal opportunities legislation mandate that recruitment processes are free from discrimination based on gender, race, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief. It is essential to avoid questions that may lead to indirect discrimination, such as those about family planning or health, unless directly relevant to the role.

Another key principle is consistency. All candidates should be evaluated against the same criteria and through standardised methods. This helps prevent unconscious bias and strengthens the defensibility of the hiring decision.

Additionally, transparency is crucial. Candidates should be informed about the recruitment process, including selection criteria, and treated with fairness and respect. Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), candidates also have rights regarding how their data is collected, stored, and used, which must be communicated clearly.

Best practices include using structured interviews for more reliable candidate assessments and providing continuous training for HR professionals and managers on legal frameworks and unconscious bias to maintain ethical standards throughout the process.

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Concrete Examples of Best Practices and Newest Techniques in Interviewing

Given the wide range of issues that can be faced, emerging best practices and innovative techniques in interviewing have been developed to attempt to overcome these challenges.  Their implementation can significantly improve both the process and outcomes of interviews. Four examples of best practice are outlined here.

• Addressing Unconscious Bias through Structured Interviews and Blind Recruitment

One of the most effective ways to combat unconscious bias is the use of structured interviews. This involves creating a standardised set of questions based on job-relevant criteria and asking all candidates the same questions. By doing so, interviewers reduce the likelihood of deviating into subjective or personal judgments and ensure that each candidate is evaluated on an equal footing. For example, rather than relying on gut feelings, a structured interview might assess all candidates on their problem-solving skills using a consistent case study relevant to the role.

A more recent innovation to tackle bias is blind recruitment, which removes potentially biasing information—such as the candidate’s name, age, gender or university—from resumes or initial screening materials. For instance, some organisations have started using automated tools to redact this information before interviews, allowing interviewers to focus purely on skills and experience. This practice helps eliminate bias during the early stages of the recruitment process and aligns with EU equal opportunities legislation, such as the Equal Treatment Directive (2006/54/EC).

Implementing blind recruitment can involve using software tools that anonymise resumes or developing policies where administrative staff remove identifying information before shortlisting. When interviewers only interact with anonymised candidates during the initial stages, the focus is squarely on qualifications, mitigating the risk of prejudice.

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• Consistency Through Structured Assessments and AI-Assisted Interviews

To overcome the challenge of inconsistency, many organisations now incorporate structured assessments that complement structured interviews. These assessments, such as cognitive ability tests, technical challenges or work simulations, ensure that all candidates face comparable hurdles, making it easier to fairly evaluate them against objective benchmarks.

Another more recent practice gaining traction is the use of AI-assisted interviews, where AI tools help analyse candidates’ responses to pre-recorded video questions. These systems can evaluate tone, word choice and even non-verbal cues, providing a consistent analysis across candidates without human bias. For instance, HireVue, an AI-driven platform, analyses recorded candidate interviews using standardised criteria. While AI must be used cautiously to avoid reinforcing existing biases, it can help ensure a level playing field by removing some of the subjectivity human interviewers might bring.

In practice, implementing these tools requires sometimes a considerable investment in software and training for HR teams, to ensure AI algorithms are transparent, ethically sound and correctly used. Combining AI with human oversight creates a hybrid approach, where AI handles consistency while humans provide judgment and empathy.

• Improving Time Management Through Digital Interviewing Platforms

HR professionals and line managers often face time constraints that hinder the effectiveness of interviews. To address this, digital interviewing platforms, such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams, offer scheduling flexibility, allowing interviews to be conducted remotely at a time convenient for both parties. This minimises the risk of rushed face-to-face interviews and enables line managers to interview candidates even when managing a heavy workload.

Moreover, asynchronous video interviews, where candidates record their responses to pre-set questions at their convenience, are becoming increasingly popular. These allow interviewers to review answers at their own pace, ensuring that they give sufficient attention to each candidate’s responses without time pressures. Platforms such as Spark Hire facilitate this approach, helping organisations assess candidates thoughtfully while balancing time constraints.

To implement digital interviewing effectively, organisations should ensure their technology infrastructure is robust, secure, and user-friendly. Training for both interviewers and candidates is also crucial, particularly around ensuring technical issues don’t hinder the quality of the interview process.

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• Balancing Cultural Fit and Technical Competence with Values-Based and Behavioural Interviews

Striking the right balance between cultural fit and technical competence is a delicate task, but one technique gaining popularity is values-based interviewing (VBI). This approach assesses how candidates’ values align with the organisation’s culture and mission. Interviewers ask candidates to describe situations where they demonstrated behaviours aligned with the company’s core values. For example, if teamwork is a core value, a VBI question might be, “Can you tell us about a time when you worked in a team to overcome a challenge? How did you ensure collaboration and success?”

Behavioural interviews complement this by focusing on past performance as a predictor of future success. These interviews use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to encourage candidates to provide detailed, real-world examples of how they have handled specific situations. This combination ensures that candidates are not only technically competent but are also likely to thrive in the organisational culture.

To implement VBI and behavioural interviews effectively, HR professionals need to identify key values and behaviours that contribute to success in their organisation and design questions accordingly. Consistency is crucial, as all candidates should be asked similar values-based questions.

Mitigating the Challenges

By adopting any or all of these practices, HR professionals and line managers can mitigate many common challenges like unconscious bias, inconsistency and time constraints. Incorporating values-based and behavioural interview techniques further helps balance cultural fit with technical skills, ensuring a well-rounded evaluation process. Implementing these best practices requires investment in technology, training, and thoughtful policy design, but the result is a more equitable, consistent, and effective interview process.