Act Fast. How to Make a Confident Job Offer After Just One Interview

Good candidates are hard to find, and when you do find them they typically have other interviews lined up and even job offers on the table already. You need to act fast if you’re going to beat those competing job offers, yet still feel satisfied that you have made a thorough assessment of whether that candidate is right for your vacancy and business.

Most employers competing for your candidate are still running two interviews – or more. What if you could make a job offer to good candidates after just one interview? Then you’d be getting ahead of those competing job offers.

Here’s how you can do it.

Because you have access to tests and assessments of your candidates’ abilities, skills and personality, you can test them before a singular interview, walk into that interview with the interview questions to address any concerns uncovered by their assessment.

If their ability test scores are on the floor and way short of what you can hope to train them up for, you can leave that candidate for your competitors to scrap over whilst you move on to find someone more capable.

Now you’re pulling away from the pack, making salary offers that match technical ability, with a Development Report to address priority training and coaching needs, meaning your new recruit feels supported and valued in their new job and is more likely to stay.

So long as you can run a good interview, you should have everything you need to make a hiring decision, pending a reference check. Running that singular good interview relies on you getting ‘permission to hire’ delegated from your colleagues before that interview. The days of inviting candidates back to meet the HR person, then the other partner are long gone because your candidate has already accepted another offer by then.

Try a selection process like this:

You receive a resume/CV for a candidate who looks like a good fit on paper
Call them the same day. What are you waiting for?
Explore their motivation to move & interest in your workplace in that call
If that went well, assemble your interview panel & set the date, time and whether the interview is in-person or video/virtual with panel and candidate as soon as you can
Arrange candidate your candidate testing/assessment link
Read the assessment reports before the interview. Be familiar with their technical skill levels, ability test scores and personality profile interview questions & training/development priorities before you start the interview
Run that interview & if its looking good, call their referee
If the reference check is also good, make an offer

Next time a candidate comes your way, act fast and get all the benefits of thorough candidate assessments without slowing down the hiring process.