3 Tips to Improve Your Interview Process

In recent years, tech companies like Google and Facebook have become notorious for difficult job interviews. Companies of all sizes and across many industries have followed suit, using challenging interviews to find and hire the best candidates. Brainteasers, business problems, behavioral questions and coding tests are routinely used to identify candidates best fit for positions. But are more difficult job interviews helping or hurting companies in their hunt for the best talent? According to the new study Do Difficult Job Interviews Lead to More Satisfied Workers? from Glassdoor Economic Research, in most cases, harder job interviews lead to better job matches. Every company is different and there isn't a one-size-fits-all interview strategy, so simply making your interview process more challenging won't necessarily lead you to the desired outcome - happier workers. In other words, there is a careful line to walk between a 'difficult' interview and a 'very difficult' interview as it relates to employee satisfaction down the road. So, how can hiring managers take advantage of this new research? Here are three tips to help evaluate your interview process for areas where you can make your job interviews more robust in order to find the right candidates: Tip #1: Don't shy away from tough questions, just have a purpose for asking them. Our study shows that more difficult interviews mean more satisfied employees. A 10 percent more difficult job interview process is associated with 2.6 percent higher employee satisfaction later on, based on pairs of interview reviews and company reviews left by individual employees on Glassdoor. Additionally, we found this statistically significant, positive link in the six different countries we studied, including the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, Germany and France.

Some employers tend to shy away from tough questions, believing they'll scare off candidates. However, if you approach tough interview questions with purpose and respect for the candidate, then tough questions are fair game. We found that the optimal or "best" interview difficulty that leads to the highest employee satisfaction is a 4 out of 5, when interview difficulty ratings are based on a five-point scale: 1.0=very easy, 3.0=average, 5.0=very difficult. By asking tough questions during the interview process, you're not only evaluating how the candidate will perform during a tough situation in the workplace, but you're also setting expectations of what the job may be like if she is hired. Note: the study shows the interview process can be too hard. Just as the easiest interviews are associated with lower employee satisfaction levels, so too are the most difficult interviews (5 out of 5).

Tip #2: Have a pre-interview game plan. What do the best companies for interviews have in common? Their interview processes run like well-oiled machines. If you're looking to up your interview game and attract better candidates, meet with your recruiters and team members before the interview rounds begin to get everyone on the same page and strategize the best questions to ask. Think you can send six people into a room and have them ask the same questions over and over? Think again; and if you're doing this, re-evaluate your strategy. Review the questions each interviewer should ask ahead of time to ensure the candidate is being asked different questions by each interviewer. This will not only make the interview more interesting (and challenging) for the candidate, but your team will leave with a better idea of the candidate's capabilities. Then, be sure to hold a group debrief after the interview so everyone can share what they thought about the candidate. Tip #3: Scan for a culture fit. Once you have an interview game plan and communicate it to your team, start emphasizing culture fit in your interviews. Especially with Millennials, culture is vital in finding the right employer - nearly 80% of Millennials look for people and culture fit with employers, followed by career potential, according to a March 2014 Collegefeed study. If you're not scanning for candidates that match your culture upfront, you're missing out. How do you do this? Ask behavioral questions, not just questions about previous work history, past employers and technical skills. Here are five behavioral interview questions we suggest asking to learn more about candidates in interviews:

1. Tell me about a time you had a conflict with someone within the organization?
2. Tell me about a time you worked on a challenging team project?
3. Do you prefer to work alone or with others?
4. Tell me about a time you took a leadership role?
5. What's the most difficult problem you had to solve?

Want more from Glassdoor? Check out the entire report, Do Difficult Job Interviews Lead to More Satisfied Workers?