A Guide to Interviewing

After The Interview

Katherine Duff, Managing Director of Keeping HR Simple, is passionate about the importance of  following up after an interview:

Recruiting can take a long time and a lot of effort to get right, so by the time you’ve finished interviewing and made a decision on who to employ, it’s tempting to bring the process to an end there and then. However, there are some key things that any small business owner should be doing after interviews.

Every business has an employer brand, that is, the way people think about them as an employer and what they say about that business as an employer. Having an awareness of your employer brand and the steps you can take to maintain and improve that brand is a crucial part of recruiting that no small business can afford to overlook.

So you’re ready to make a job offer. What’s next?

Make the offer conditional.

We all like to give good news, and once you’ve selected the person you want to employ, you might want to make them an offer straight away. However, you could fall into the trap of making an unconditional offer, which could come back to haunt you. Once made and accepted, the offer becomes a legally binding contract of employment and withdrawing it is a breach of that contract, meaning that your almost-employee should be given the same amount of notice pay as though he or she had already started working for you. It’s a situation that’s easily avoided by making a conditional offer. In practical terms, a conditional offer just makes it clear that the offer of a job is conditionalon the person meeting certain criteria such as:

• Satisfactory references
• A DBS check if working with children or vulnerable adults
• A medical or other health check if relevant to the job
• Proof of the right to work in the UK if you haven’t already checked it
• Proof of certificates or qualifications needed to do the job

At the very least, you should always check references and proof of the right to work in the UK, the latter being a legal requirement and you must be able to demonstrate that you have carried out this check. If they are a British or EU national, asking for their original passport and keeping a black and
white copy on their personnel record is sufficient. Additional information on checking proof of the right
to work is available from the UK Borders Agency.

Put it in writing

Most people will expect an offer letter in writing and understandably so. More often than not they will be resigning on the strength of the offer of a job from you so it’s reasonable for them to expect that you will put the offer in writing.

Keep in touch

If someone is working out their notice with their current employer, it can be several weeks before they’re available to join you. During that time, it’s a good idea to get in contact with them at least once or twice just to let them know that you’re looking forward to having them join you. Remember that the new employee will be feeling nervous and anything you can do to alleviate those nerves will help them to feel welcome and quickly become part of the team when they join.

What about the unsuccessful candidates?

It’s a sad fact that hardly anyone gives interview feedback to unsuccessful candidates so, if you do, you will distinguish yourself from all the other companies who can’t be bothered. Even though they’ve been unsuccessful, people will always comment favourably on companies who follow up after interview and in this social media age, who couldn’t use a few positive comments? Top tips for interview feedback are as follows:
• Be honest – it’s tempting to “soften the blow” by being really nice but it can be counterproductive as the person is left wondering why they didn’t get the job if they were that good!
• Tell them something useful. If they lack experience in a certain area or if they could take another qualification to improve their skill set, they’re never going to know if you don’t tell them
• Back up your comment with relevant examples from their interview. If they didn’t give a particularly good answer to an important question, constructively tell them how they could have improved upon it
• Make sure you say thank you. Not enough companies recognise that jobseekers might have to take time off (and maybe even make excuses to their current employers), and fork out for travel expenses to get to your offices. The least you can do is thank them for their time. And who knows, next time someone wants a recommendation for your product or service, your unsuccessful jobseeker may just remember you.

www.keepinghrsimple.co.uk