APlus Career | Insight Article
HIRING EXCELLENCE TALENT STRATEGY
Nina Phinnipha Suriyong | Founder & Managing Director, APlus Career
If your company trains Line Managers how to interview candidates I genuinely respect that decision. It is still rare. And it matters far more than most organisations realise.
In over 18 years of placing senior leaders across industries in Asia, I have sat across from hundreds of hiring processes the structured ones, the improvised ones, and the ones built entirely
around one manager’s ego and expertise. The difference in outcomes is not subtle.
This article is for HR leaders and business owners who want to know what a genuinely effective interview process looks like and why getting it right is a competitive advantage.
The interview room is where great hiring decisions are made or lost.
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What the data tells us A 2024 ResumeBuilder survey of 1,000 hiring managers found that 32% admit they knowingly ask illegal interview questions. Not by accident. Knowingly. A 2014 CareerBuilder/Harris Poll survey of 2,192 hiring managers found that 1 in 5 had asked an illegal question without realising it was illegal. That is not a candidate problem. That is a training problem. |
1. Invest in Interviewer Training Properly
Seniority does not equal interviewing skill. This is one of the most expensive assumptions I see organisations make.
A Line Manager may be exceptional at their technical role and still conduct an interview that is legally risky, candidate-unfriendly, and ultimately unhelpful
in identifying the right hire. These are different skill sets and the second one requires deliberate development.
Effective interviewer training should cover:
- How behavioral-based interviewing works in practice not just theory
- What questions are legally off-limits and why managers ask them anyway
- How to recognise and manage their own unconscious bias
- How to listen beyond the rehearsed answer reading body language, thinking process, and preparation signals
The return on this investment is clear. The Brandon Hall Group found that companies prioritising a strong hiring experience improve their quality of hire by 70%. That is not a soft HR benefit. That
is a measurable business outcome.
Companies like HubSpot and Salesforce have embedded formal interviewer certification programmes requiring managers to demonstrate competency before they lead interviews with real candidates.
These are not small companies experimenting. They are examples of organisations treating hiring as a strategic function.
2. Design a Proper Interview Scorecard Per Position
One of the most common failures I see in interview processes is the recycled question template the same 10 generic questions used across every role, every
level, every function.
This is not structure. It is the appearance of structure.
A properly designed interview framework for each position includes:
- Behaviorally-anchored questions tied to the specific competencies required for that role
- A structured scorecard so every candidate is assessed against the same criteria not against each other’s impression
- Consistent scoring definitions so that a rating of 4 out of 5 means the same thing to every interviewer on the panel
The research on this is compelling. The American Psychological Association found that one structured interview has the same predictive validity as three to four unstructured ones.
You save time, reduce legal risk, and make better decisions all at once.
Fairness is not just an ethical imperative. It is a hiring quality imperative. When candidates are assessed on inconsistent or role-irrelevant criteria, organisations consistently
miss the best person for the job and often hire the most familiar-feeling one instead.
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A note on ego and Projection Error Research identifies a documented phenomenon called Projection Error when an interviewer unconsciously expects candidates to mirror their own knowledge, thinking style, and background. The more senior the manager, the more pronounced this becomes. They are not finding the best candidate they are finding the most familiar one. A properly designed scorecard is one of the most effective tools for breaking this pattern. |
3. Review Your Interview Process Regularly
An interview process is not a permanent fixture. It should be a living system reviewed, tested, and adjusted as your roles evolve, your market shifts, and
your business priorities change.
If your interview framework has not been reviewed in the last 12 to 18 months, there is a meaningful risk it is already misaligned with what the role actually requires today.
Practical areas to review regularly include:
- Are the competencies on your scorecard still the right ones for the role?
- Are your interview questions still legally compliant as employment laws continue to evolve?
- Is the number of interview rounds appropriate or has it become unnecessarily burdensome for candidates?
- Are interviewers being calibrated before each process aligning on what good looks like?
- What is the candidate experience? Are finalists walking away with a positive impression regardless of outcome?
That last point matters more than most companies acknowledge. 83% of candidates say a negative interview experience can change their mind about a role or
company they previously liked (LinkedIn, 2023). Your interview process is part of your employer brand whether you manage it intentionally or not.
Final Thought
The companies that invest in training their managers, designing role-specific scorecards, and reviewing their process continuously are not doing this because it feels good.
They are doing it because it works.
Better process equals better decisions. Better decisions equal stronger teams. And stronger teams are the only sustainable competitive advantage any organisation actually has.
The best interviewer is not the smartest person in the room. They are the most intentional.
Sources
ResumeBuilder.com Hiring Manager Survey (2024)
CareerBuilder / Harris Poll Hiring Manager Survey of 2,192 managers (2014)
Brandon Hall Group Candidate Experience & Quality of Hire Research
American Psychological Association Structured vs. Unstructured Interview Validity
LinkedIn Candidate Experience Survey (2023)
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