Structured Interview as a Must-Have in the Application Process: How to Succeed.

1. What is a structured interview?
2. Why are structured interviews used?
3. What is the procedure for a structured interview?
4. Which questions are asked in the structured interview?
5. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a structured interview?
6. What types of structured interviews are there?
7. How can you as a candidate prepare for a structured interview?
8. What should interviewers keep in mind when preparing a structured interview?
9. Food for thought: When is a structured interview successful?

In this article, our guest author Aylin Sarica explains to you what a structured interview is, how you can prepare for it, and what you should consider as both an applicant or interviewer.⁠
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⁠It's a match! Ideally, this is the result of an interview on both sides: Candidate*in and Hiring-Manager*in are convinced of each other. Just like dating, the point of the interview is to find out whether the needs, characteristics and values fit on both sides. To be able to make this decision in the best possible way, there are structured interviews. So that you can prepare and conduct them, whether as People - or Hiring-Manager*in or as a candidate*in, you will receive the most important information and tips here. At the end, there is also a treat for the thinkers*in among you: Because when an interview was successful, it may be measured differently than initially suspected.

What is a structured interview?

A structured interview is based on a previously defined questionnaire and evaluation criteria. This requires thorough preparation on the part of the potential employer. The structured interview is to be compared with a so-called free interview, in which the interviewer*in either shortly before or spontaneously in the conversation defines the questions. The term "interview" suggests that one person asks questions and the other answers. However, interviews for an optimal Candidate Experience don't necessarily feel like that, but rather like a get-to-know-you conversation. For the job candidates among you: It's particularly important that you don't let the name mislead you and also prepare questions.

Why are structured interviews used?

In recruiting, it's important to be aware of your so-called bias. The word comes from English and stands for prejudice, inclination or bias. This means that one's own perception is distorted due to unconscious internal processes. This is particularly critical when hiring staff and also forbidden by the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) if, among other things, gender, ethnic origin or worldview influence such decisions.

So it is important not to base personnel decisions on a "gut feeling". The structured interview is a particularly good support for this. Because thanks to the beforehand defined questions, the People - or Recruiting Team can ensure that the questions provide information about whether the candidates fit the requirements of the position and the company. At the same time, the standardization of questions creates a comparability of the candidates, which is not only more fair for them, but also simplifies decision making.

Not to forget are the factors time (=money) and quality. Compared to free interviews, there is initially a somewhat higher effort required for structured interviews, when setting up the interview guides, as the appropriate questions and criteria need to be defined. However, this time is regained during and after the interviews by allowing the evaluation to be easier and more efficient. In addition, a predefined quality standard can be maintained through the uniform structure of the structured interviews, which can even withstand a change of interviewers.

If your company wants to grow sustainably, defined and efficient recruiting processes are essential. A structured interview is an important part of this.

What is the procedure for a structured interview?

The procedure and duration can vary depending on the position and process step. First meetings typically take 30 - 60 minutes. Conversations with the specialist area may take a little longer, especially for management positions, where they can take 60 - 120 minutes. Since every company has different interview steps, it's important to ask in the initial conversation how the further interview process looks like, to prepare yourself as best as possible for the next steps.

The frame: Intro and conclusion

In terms of content, the structured interview always has a clear frame: the intro and the conclusion. The intro usually starts with some small talk, you ask about the well-being and the interviewers*in briefly introduce themselves.

If you are conducting interviews yourself, it's good to also explain the course of the interview to the candidates. Through this transparency, you put yourself and your counterpart at eye level: both sides know what lies ahead. Information about notice periods or possible start dates, salary expectations, work models etc. are clarified in the closing part. In addition, the next steps are explained and both sides say goodbye. So far, so good. But what is the main part of the structured interview constructed like?

The main part: company presentation, self-presentation and follow-up questions

If you are on the company side, at this point you should distinguish between applicants and candidates who have been contacted by you.

Keyword: Candidate Experience

With applicants, it can be assumed that they have already dealt with the company, so that in the context of a self-presentation, you can go into more detail about their previous professional career, the experiences and skills they have gained there. In interviews with specialist areas, it can be expected that they go into technical detail, as they want to find out whether the person meets or exceeds the technical requirements. It's different if it's candidates who have been contacted by active sourcing, for example. Here, after the intro and a presentation round, you should go into more detail about your company: What is the founding story? What are your services or products? How do you work and what are your values, vision and mission? Here, it's important to choose the right focus according to the possible interests and needs of your candidates. The order of the company or self-presentation is therefore to be determined according to the target group.

The interview ideally happened in such a way that the candidates or applicants were able to clarify any questions that arose in the meantime. Shortly before the conclusion, time is dedicated to follow-up questions. Anyone who doesn't ask any questions here may leave the impression that they are not genuinely interested in the company, the joint collaboration or their own development. Despite a good interview, this can significantly worsen your own chances. So: prepare questions for this part or write down any questions that come up during the conversation, so that you can ask them at the latest now.

Which questions are asked in the structured interview?

The personnel department, in cooperation with the specialist department, typically decides on the questions, depending on the position to be filled. All questions generally aim to get to know your motivation, special experiences and competencies (soft and hard skills) as well as your values & personality traits. Below, you'll find a few examples of what such questions might look like:

Questions about motivation:

• Why did you apply to us?
• How did you become aware of us?
• Why are you currently open to a change?
• What are the reasons for you being interested in position XY?

Questions about experiences and competencies:

Responsibility:

• What tasks did you have?
• How many employees did you manage technically and/or disciplinarily?
• Which customers did you have?
• How much budget responsibility did you have?

Team collaboration:

• What was your team composed of?
• What was your role in your team?
• What worked particularly well in the collaboration and what didn't?
• When was there a conflict in your team?

Feedback capability:

• What feedback have you recently received from your team members/superiors?
• When was the last time you criticized something? How was your feedback received?
• From which feedback were you able to learn a lot?

Dealing with challenges:

• Which of your projects was particularly challenging?
• In which situation did you reach your limits?
• When were you unhappy with the result of a project

Hard-Skills:

• Which tools have you worked with so far?
• Which KPI do you work with? How do you measure success?
• On a scale of 0 -5, how good are you at XXX?
• How many XXX have you carried out / led so far?

Questions about values/ character traits

• What do your friends say about you?
• What did you particularly appreciate about your last employer / what did you lack?
• Which three characteristics are you particularly proud of?
• What would you like to learn next?
• What does [insert company value] mean to you?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of a structured interview?

The advantages of a structured interview result mainly from the beforehand created questionnaires and evaluation criteria. On the one hand, they can reduce the effort in the evaluation process and on the other hand, they can enable increased objectivity and fairness. The former affects the factors money and time, which are particularly important on the company side. The latter, of course, is also particularly valuable for you as applicants and candidates.

At the same time, a certain quality in the interview process is created by the structured and carefully selected structure and content of the questions. This ensures that even with changing interview partners, a certain standard in the interview process is maintained.

Disadvantages of a structured interview can result from the fact that no spontaneous dialogue arises due to the fixed structure or the flexibility to address individual aspects of the candidates is not given.

Especially experienced personnel managers and executives will know that a natural transition and a pleasant dialogue are possible even despite a predefined questionnaire. The overarching goals, such as ensuring an optimal candidate experience under the given conditions and at the same time being able to make a sound decision, must always be kept in mind.

What types of structured interviews are there?

There are different types of structured interviews with different focuses. If you are on the company side, it's here to decide depending on the level and requirements of the position and the type of position, which form of structured interview is particularly suitable. For the candidates among you: The more you reflect on past experiences and draw understandable and solution-oriented conclusions for the future, the better prepared you are for the different forms of structured interviews.

Behavior Description Interview (BDI)

As the name may already suggest, this form of structured interview is about describing behavior. This type follows a biographical approach. The basic idea here is that conclusions about work methods, experiences, personality traits and values can be drawn from a person's past behavior. Typically, the questions relate to specific situations in the professional past in order to assess the behavior of the candidates. To create comparability, it is also important here that the same behavior-related questions are asked in all interviews.

Biographical Interview (BI)

In this form of structured interview, individual professional stations or situations are asked and illuminated in detail. Similar to the BDI, the questions in the biographical interview refer to behavior in the past. The questions can tie in with the candidates' self-presentation or be used as in-depth questions. The experienced interviewers among you know it already: Here it is especially important to be very attentive, to have a quick grasp and a feel for the right situations. Only in this way can you go into more detail at sensible places and at the right time about specific situations, actions and decisions that are meaningful and at the same time comparable with those of other candidates.

Situational Interview (SI)

In the situational interview, a fictitious situation is given or simulated, to which the candidates should respond and explain their procedure. Here, cases are created by the specialist departments that are of high relevance for the performance of the activity and the responsibility to be carried. Situational questions and answers are therefore future-oriented and can give a first impression of how the candidates react to unforeseen situations and what behavioral options they recognize. When constructing the cases, you should make sure that they are described neutrally and without evaluations, so that the answer or reaction is not influenced by the opinion of the interviewers, but can take place freely. Even for applicants and candidates, such questions can be interesting, as they can get insights into challenges to master in the future job.

Multimodal Interview (MMI)

The multimodal interview consists of an unchangeable sequence of eight conversation components. Five serve to evaluate the candidates, that is, the answers and behavior are checked and evaluated during them. The remaining three components are used to give the interview a natural conversation flow and inform the candidates.

This is a combination of the types of interview questions explained above:

1. Start of conversation (no evaluation)
2. Self-presentation (evaluation)
3. Free part of conversation (evaluation)
4. Professional orientation & organization choice (evaluation)
5. Biography-related data (evaluation)
6. Information about the activity to be carried out (no evaluation)
7. Situational questions (evaluation)
8. Conclusion of conversation (no evaluation)

When is a structured interview used?

The use of a structured interview is independent of career level and position, as the questions are prepared in advance by the specialist and personnel departments and adapted to the target group.

How can you as a candidate prepare for a structured interview?

Good preparation is very important, as it not only increases your chances of success, but also allows you to personally develop.

Me, Myself and I

The first step in preparation is to deal with yourself: What job do you want to do? What are the reasons for this? Where do you want to develop? What environment or conditions do you need for this? What are your values? With such questions, you can actually find out at the end of the interview whether your needs and wishes match those of the company - not for nothing do we therefore like to compare this with dating. The better you know yourself, the better you can also answer the questions.

STAR Biography

In the second step, you should go through your professional stations and make notes about important challenges, experiences and learnings. Match these with the requirements in the job advertisement and make sure that you derive at least one relevant experience or situation from your (professional) life for each requirement. Hiring managers or recruiters are best convinced by concrete examples. For this, you should use the STAR method. First explain the situation, then the task to be solved and the actions carried out, and finally the result. You can also discuss your examples with friends or your family and ask them to give you feedback. This way, you also practice your expressiveness.

Research

Last but not least: Interviews are always two-sided and as a candidate or applicant you should also ask questions in the interview. Therefore, deal with the company's web presence (website, social media) and the job posting. Also during the interview, you should ask any questions that arise either directly or write down and ask at the end.

What should interviewers keep in mind when preparing a structured interview?

To create a guide for the structured interview, you first need an requirements profile coordinated between the people and specialist areas and clear evaluation criteria. From this, you can then derive the questions and document them in a suitable Applicant Management Software. Candidate management softwares can assist you well here. An overview of the best Candidate Management Software can help you make the selection. We have compiled a few tools for you:

Personio

JobShop von talentsconnect

rexx systems

talentstorm

Greenhouse

Zoho Recruit

When defining the questions, make sure not to ask leading questions and avoid closed questions. If you haven't defined the questions yourself and are going into the interview with them for the first time, you should familiarize yourself with the questions. The better you know them, the more naturally you can guide the conversation. Those who do not read aloud can make eye contact and show presence, which has a positive influence on the candidate experience.

In addition, as interviewers, you should always make yourselves aware of your own biases. This is an important foundation in the entire recruiting process. The CV, application and social media presence of candidates and applicants should be reviewed again before the application interview, and any inconsistencies or points of interest noted, so these can find attention in the course of the interview. If you represent your company in the interview, it is important that your rehearse the presentation of your company and yourself, as well as answers to possible questions from the candidate side. Your goal should be to create a pleasant conversation atmosphere, because with each outward contact you influence your employer branding.

Food for thought: When is a structured interview successful?

"A successful interview!", with this sentence or feeling you might want to go out of the interview, no matter what side you're on. Many people associate a successful interview with the result that it leads to the next step in the recruitment process or even to a hire. This is definitely a success. At the same time, this is just one side of the coin. Sometimes one side or even both sides find out something quite different through getting to know each other in the interview: That it doesn't fit.

Don't just consider this situation as a failure. You can also see this as a small success. If you notice in the interview process that it doesn't fit, it doesn't mean for the company nor for the candidates or applicants that you are not good enough. But: Under these circumstances and at this time it just might not fit. The fact that you have found this out now and thus saved time, effort and perhaps nerves is a success. Take learnings with you and keep going!