Management training courses often offer modules on recruitment. Poor selection can be a very costly experience both in time and money. Therefore when interviewing for a prospective employee it’s important to remember these basic pointers early on:

Make sure you make them feel welcome
Every applicant is going to be acting to some degree or another. They’re playing the role they think you are looking for. If you make them feel at ease early on, you’re much more likely to see the real character beneath the façade, whether you like it or not.

Give them an overview of the job
Spend a few minutes early on giving them a bit of information about the company (you don’t need to sell it to them, just be informative) and then summarise the position you are recruiting for, including key responsibilities and information as to how it fits in to the bigger picture of the company.

Ask open questions
If you ask open questions such as ‘what can you do for us?’, ‘what brings you here?’ ‘how would you describe yourself?’, you are likely to get a much more detailed, personal and varied response. If you ask leading questions, or even worse, closed questions you’ll be left not truly knowing enough about the candidate after the interview.