Finding new employees involves making decisions that shouldn’t always rely on your gut instinct alone. Once you post your job opening and reach the interview stage of the hiring process, it helps to use a rating system to compare applicants and choose the best fit for your open position.
Not sure where to start? Check out a rundown of the basics below. Then, download this template to create a ready-made scoring sheet tailored to the needs of your team and business.
Why use a scoring system?
An interview scoring system helps you easily rate applicants based on the qualifications you’re seeking for the role.
With a scoring system, you can objectively measure and compare applicants based on how they answer questions related to:
- Relevant experience
- Hard and soft skills
- Culture fit
- And other important areas of consideration
How to use an interview scoring sheet
Structure your interview with the right questions
A good interview is all about what you ask the applicant — and how you score their answers. A structured list of questions that are the same for every candidate keeps your interview process consistent and objective.
Choose relevant questions based on necessary soft skills, common workplace challenges, and levels of experience. For more help with interview questions, check out our article on how to nail each stage of the hiring process.
Take presentation into account
An interview isn’t only about how a candidate answers questions — presentation matters as well. The impact of a good handshake, eye contact, and preparation level can often be left to your personal intuition. But why not put some numbers behind these qualities?
The presentation section of your system allows you to score applicants on how they carry themselves during the interview as a whole. Not only will it help you sort out your gut feeling, but it will also make it easier to identify who would be a great fit for your workplace culture.
Settle on your scoring system
A good system scores on a scale of 1-5, with firm descriptions behind each value. For example:
1 The candidate didn’t answer the question.
2: The candidate was unable to expand on this answer.
3: The candidate hit on some key aspects of the question.
4: The candidate had a strong answer to the question.
5: The candidate offered an ideal answer to this question.
Use your scoring sheet for every interview
Make it a point to use your score sheet as your interview every candidate. You can tailor the questions based on the open role, but maintaining consistency will help you make smarter decisions and get the best results during your hiring process.
Need more help? Homebase hiring has your back. We’ll post your job description on the leading sites and help you find the perfect candidate by using our applicant tracking system to manage respondents from all the job boards in one place.
