Find the best candidates with a structured interview

Job interviews can be stressful conversations — for all parties.

Applicants want to make a great first impression, and hiring managers hope to choose someone excellent to onboard. Job search anxiety is real — and it doesn’t end when the interview starts. And if recruiters choose a poor company fit, it wastes onboarding resources and stalls projects.

Streamlining the interview process for both applicants and interviewers makes the experience better all around and increases the chance that everyone finds the right fit. Structured interviews do just that.

What’s a structured interview?

A structured interview is a type of interview that standardizes the process and provides outlines for candidates so they know what to expect.

The hiring team will analyze the transferable skills, experience, and strengths of the most capable hire and construct an interview around them to find better matches. Hiring managers supply this to candidates before interviews.

Here’s a structured interview outline example:

• An introduction to the company’s mission, values, and what a hiring manager’s looking for in a candidate 

• Questions addressing a candidate's skill set, expertise, and employee strengths

• A problem-solving test, if relevant. This is especially common for more technical roles, like information technology or data analysis

• Time reserved for the candidate to ask questions

Advantages of structured interviews for interviewers

Employers have a short window of time to get to know each candidate. Every minute — and question — counts. Considering what to include beforehand helps interviewers zero in on the most important information. And if you’ve ever been the interviewer, you know how nice it is to have a plan.

Here are a few more benefits for interviewers: 

1. Save time

Finding the right candidate is time-consuming. Before the interviewing begins, hiring managers have to source candidates, sort through countless resumes, ask preliminary questions from applicants, and organize interviews.

And you’ll likely interview several people. Structuring the process makes interview prep easier and quicker because the format is consistent.

2. Find a better fit

Interviews are a two-way street — candidates are sizing up potential employers, too. And 78% of people think their candidate experience says something about how a company values employees.

Structuring the interview process and giving an outline beforehand says your organization is professional, thorough, and cares about their nerves and time. You’ll likely find better-fit candidates who also appreciate these qualities in an employer. 

3. Avoid asking redundant questions 

Even the most experienced recruiters get flustered and repeat themselves. Structured interviews prompt you to plan ahead and use a thoughtful question list. This avoids redundancy and allows you to tailor questions to the role to get more relevant answers.

Advantages of structured interviews for candidates

Even the most seasoned applicants find job interviews stressful. There’s a lot on the line — your new job depends on you giving the right answer. Receiving the interview structure beforehand can ease some of these anxieties in the following ways: 

1. Take out the surprise factor

An unstructured interview makes the already stressful hiring process even more anxiety-inducing. Receiving an outline beforehand helps candidates prepare and takes more unknowns out of the equation. The fewer “What-ifs” you have to consider, the better you’ll feel. 

2. Focus on important details

Candidates should always prepare for potential interview questions, but with so many possibilities, you might waste time practicing answers to irrelevant ones. Having an overview beforehand helps you develop thoughtful answers the interviewer will find useful. 

3. Limit unconscious bias

An interviewer's unconscious bias can get in the way of hiring great candidates. If interviewers choose questions on the spot, they might let their biases influence their questions.

Planning out standardized questions means everyone gets the same questions, no matter your experience level or previous answers.

Disadvantages of structured interviews

Good conversations are agile — if you’re listening carefully, you’re pivoting based on details shared and asking relevant questions. If interviews are too structured, chances might be missed to probe a candidate further or hear an anecdote that reveals an employee’s strengths.

Structured interviews also mean asking the same questions to each candidate for a particular role. This might feel repetitive or disingenuous, as every candidate’s unique.

Structured versus unstructured interviews — what’s better?

Overall, structured interviews better prepare candidates and lead to a greater understanding of how they’ll perform.

That said, there’s a time and place for unstructured ones: the final interview stage. These are when managers or coworkers that’ll be working closely with the candidate lead interviews.

At this point, a candidate may be less nervous, and both interviewers and interviewees will discuss the final details needed to decide.

4 structured interview best practices

Finding potential candidates and conducting interviews is complex enough. Make your process easier by following these tips: 

1. Share the structure

Send candidates an interview overview a couple days before the meeting to help them prepare and provide time to cancel if something’s unagreeable. This might be a simpler document than yours — for example, you might not provide exact questions but broad descriptions of what you’ll ask.

But make sure to include a brief description of your company, the roles’ responsibilities, and a schedule for the interview so they know what to expect.

2. Add clarity and context

Ask questions relevant to the skills and experience mentioned in the job description. This is information they’ve already read (and hopefully reviewed) so questions will be less surprising.

If the interview is for a project management role and delegation is a required skill, you might ask the candidate, “Could you tell me about a time you delegated tasks effectively to complete a project before its deadline? What was your delegation process like?”

3. Score immediately

Asking the same questions repeatedly makes it easy to confuse one candidate's responses with another’s. Take thorough notes and note your first impressions right after the interview.

If your company uses an applicant tracking system, there may be a function to score candidates. If not, create a rating scale to keep track of answers and your impression. You may choose a 1–5 scoring system for questions like "How thorough was their response?" or "How well did they demonstrate this skill?"

You might be surprised at total scores and what strengths or weaknesses they reveal about candidates.

4. Point to your values

Choose new hires that align with the organization’s brand and company culture. You can make this happen by expressing your brand and using value-laden language during the interview to see if they repeat terms back at you or veer off path.

This is also a great way to understand whether candidates have done their homework and researched the company.

Most organizations have a mission statement and core values. If your company prizes teamwork and collaboration, for example, probe candidates about what sort of work they like best and how they prefer teamwork to be monitored and organized. If they prefer to be a lone wolf, they might not thrive in your workplace.

Also pay attention to whether the way they express themselves aligns with your values. If you’re a start-up that’s quickly growing, ask questions about the candidate's ability to adapt, work in a fast-paced environment, or learn quickly, for example.

Examples of structured interview questions

Choose several types of interview questions to avoid repetition or narrow opportunities for response. These three question types complement each other well, so you gain a complete understanding of the candidate’s qualities: 

Structured job-specific interview questions

These are customized and focus on how well a candidate would perform a specific role:

• What do you like and dislike about your most recent job?

• Why did you apply for this role?

• What are your past experiences working with [name of a program or specific skill]?

• What are you looking for in a new job?

• What’s your preferred management style?

• What’s your preferred communication cadence? 

Structured behavioral interview questions

Behavioral questions focus on the candidate's professional experiences and interpersonal and soft skills: 

• Tell me about a time you overcame a workplace challenge. 

• How do you approach workplace conflict? 

• What motivates you to do your best work?

• Do you prefer solo or collaborative work?

• Tell me about a failure and what you learned. 

• Tell me about a work success you’re particularly proud of. 

• What do you believe are the most important leadership values?

Structured situational interview questions

Situational questions focus on the candidate's problem-solving and critical-thinking competencies:

• Tell me about a time you dealt with a disagreement with a manager. How did you two overcome this conflict? 

• Tell me about a time you handled a difficult coworker. What strategy did you use and why? 

• Tell me about a time you weren't happy with your job performance. What steps did you take to change?

• Tell me about a time you noticed a problem and took charge to find a solution.

Making interviews better

Interviews are stressful all around. Candidates might have received rejections all week and now have to deal with yet another nerve-wracking interview. Hiring managers want the best for their company, which means hiring great talent.

You can make the interview process better by providing structured interviews. You likely already know what you want to ask each candidate — you just have to formalize it and build the habit of sending applicants an overview. You’ll spend less time talking in circles and more time finding the perfect fit.