Structured Vs. Unstructured Interview Techniques: Which Works Best?

In a world of flextime, employee autonomy, and an overall relaxed workplace environment, you might think that one of today’s best interview techniques would be a casual give-and-take between recruiter and candidate. Yet study after study has shown that organizations who use unstructured job interviews are at a disadvantage in the battle for talent.

Structured vs. Unstructured Interview Techniques

Every recruiter or hiring manager struggles with just how much they need to structure the interview process. Both structured and unstructured interview techniques have their advantages and disadvantages. Do you know which one is best for you? Structured Interviews Structured interviews include questions that are based on the position’s job requirements and the abilities need to perform the work. Every candidate is asked the same questions and the most common ones look to discover:

• A candidate’s strengths and weaknesses.
• How a candidate processes information and makes decisions.
• Whether a candidate would be a good fit for the position and assimilate into a company’s culture.

Answers are then assessed and given a predetermined rating. This helps recruiters minimize their personal bias during an interview and stay focused on strict job-relevant criteria. Advantages of structured interviews include their one-size-fits-all approach and the standardized results which make it easier to compare candidates. Disadvantages can include missing out on a candidate’s strengths because the questions asked did not cover them, and the interview had an impersonal feel, which can turn some candidates off. Unstructured Interviews Unstructured interviews are just what they sound like – more casual and unrehearsed. Conversation and a back and forth exchange figure more prominently than set questions and answers. Most often, the free-flowing conversations focus on a candidate’s personal qualities and how they relate to the position. In unstructured interviews, you’re free to pick and explore particular parts of a potential candidate’s resume, application, or cover letter. They also allow you to go more in-depth if one or more of the candidate’s traits intrigues you, and they give you some insight into how well she or he will fit in with your company’s culture. On the other hand, without advance questions, you may miss an important trait or skill. And not everyone is comfortable winging an interview.

The Best Approach

Most large IT firms today believe more standardized interview techniques, including structured interviews, are the way to go. Tech giant Google has a data-rich hiring process that eliminates biases and uses structured interviews and a candidate’s background information to determine the best candidate for a job. Recruiters and hiring managers who are willing to accept that their own decision-making skills come with built-in biases and, thus, are not perfect, can come to love big data when it comes to hiring. They’ll soon find that filling positions with qualified candidates using pre-determined criteria has some pretty nice long-term benefits, including improved retention and greater productivity.