A Candidate Evaluation Form is a great way for you as a hiring manager to track and assess an individual’s overall qualifications. The Form provides guidance to you and all other interviewers and a consistent method for comparing the interviewers’ impressions of different candidates.
The questions also provide guidance about the type of skills and potential contributions the interviewers should be assessing in each candidate they interview. If all candidates are treated with similar respect and asked to meet similar criteria, you can trust your result when one emerges as the consistent candidate of choice.
In this article, we will go over a few very important considerations for interviewers when evaluating candidates and also supply you with a Candidate Evaluation Form as part of our ConnectedHR series on the Interview Process.
What is a Candidate Evaluation Form?
Candidate evaluation forms are to be completed by the interviewer to rank the candidate’s overall qualifications for the position to which he or she has applied. Under each heading, the interviewer should give the candidate a numerical rating and write specific job-related comments in the space provided.
Why YOU Need a Candidate Evaluation Form for Interviews
When a recruiter interviews several candidates for a single job opening, he must evaluate each candidate to determine whether they are right for the job. Having an evaluation sheet allows the recruiter to analyze each candidate based on specific criteria developed by the company for the job in question. The evaluation sheet sets forth what the employer is looking for so he can find the right person for the job.
FREE DOWNLOAD: CANDIDATE EVALUATION FORM
How to Customize and Utilize Your Candidate Evaluation Form
You may want to customize the Candidate Evaluation Form with any additional assessments you believe are necessary for a particular position. Over time, you and your company will want to develop customized questions for every position you are interviewing for. This way all hiring staff/interviewers charged with the responsibility of evaluating candidates can do so in a consistent and efficient manner. Depending on the position you are interviewing for, it may make sense to have several individuals in your company be involved in the interview process.
For example, when hiring a salesperson, the hiring manager might have the responsibility to assess the individual’s sales ability, communication skills, and other specific work requirements. Management or other hiring authority within the company may want to assess the candidate’s “cultural fit” with questions about how the candidate treated and/or interacted with his or her staff or co-workers at previous jobs. A peer interviewer may want to know how the candidate works in a team environment, how he or she gets leads, and how the person might fit in as an employee. It may be a good idea to share questions and responsibility across interviewers. You will learn more about the candidate this way and be in a better position to judge whether he or she is a good fit and will likely succeed on the job.
Social Media Searches in Interviews
Always keep in mind that internet searches, including Facebook or other personal sites, may reveal information about an applicant that can be discriminatory. Take a look at some examples.
- race
- gender
- family
- political views
- controversial opinions
- religion
- children
- national origin
- sexual orientation
- age
Make sure you are not using any “protected class” information to discriminate against applicants during the hiring process. Make an effort to minimize the use of impermissible information that may be found on the internet and to verify factual information before making an employment decision based on such information (whether deliberately retrieved or inadvertently found during a search).
Finally, be careful not to write personal notes on the candidate evaluation form that may be regarded as inappropriate or, worse, discriminatory. Remember to focus on whether the candidate will be able to perform the job and other job-related questions. Steer clear from comments such as “not young and energetic enough” or “concerned that she is getting married and may want to start a family soon”. Your personal opinions about the candidate if written down may end up as an “exhibit” in court if discrimination charges are filed.
Your company will never be known as an employer of choice if you’ve got the wrong people in the building. One or two negative personalities or ineffective workers can drag down an entire operation and send your top people fleeing for the exits.
