Hiring Employees

Interview Evaluation Kit

Interview evaluation kits are designed to provide a set of turnkey tools for the hiring process. The best kits have everything you need to interview effectively, including several resources that will protect your company from legal exposure.

A job interview isn't a simple conversation.

It's a formal dialogue between a job applicant and a representative of your business. And from a legal perspective, it's a personal engagement in which job applicants have certain rights and protections. The bottom line is that it's easy to bungle the interview process and put your business in murky legal waters.

Companies that are effective at interviewing rely on a standardized interview process. They also equip their interviewers with the tools they need to thin the herd of applicants while remaining legally compliant. Although you can offload the burden of interviewing to other managers in your organization, the responsibility for maintaining a legal and fair interview process is on your shoulders. If an applicant feels like he has been treated unfairly, it's usually the business owner who is held accountable.

The upside is that there is an abundance of resources available to help small businesses handle the interviewing process. Interviewing solutions range from simple solutions to expensive outsourcing options. But the most common resources are found in interview evaluation kits - and here are some of the resources they contain.

Interview skill-building resources. Interviewing is not necessarily a natural skill. Many talented executives completely fall apart when they interview job applicants, some of whom are much better communicators than they the executive themselves. Interview evaluation kits usually include interviewing tips that are designed to get team of interviewers up to speed on the latest interviewing techniques.
Legal guidance. Interview evaluation kits also include important legal information that will guide the interview process. Whether you know it or not, it's illegal to ask certain questions during an interview, especially ones that relate to race, sexual preference, religion, marital status or other protected information categories. Also, your kit will guide you in creating the standard set of questions that you will ask every job candidate.
Sample questions. Interview evaluation kits often contain lists of sample questions that have been proven to deliver valuable insights about the performance potential of your candidates. Your team can use those questions as the basis for establishing interview questions that are tailored to your specific job requirements.
Multimedia tools. In many cases, interview evaluation kits offer multimedia resources (e.g. DVDs and presentations) that can be used to train interviewers and prepare your staff for a successful interviewing experience.