The interview process isn’t all about you, the employer.

The goal is to hire the best people for your team, which also means ensuring you’re the best company to bring into the candidate’s life.

It’s a mutual, win/win relationship, and the interview process is designed to uncover that.

Often, as I’ve seen during my career, my bad hires weren’t just bad hires for the company, but we weren’t the right company for them. And that’s okay.

Your interview process must be designed so candidates have the opportunity to peak into the organization and see what working for the company will be like, and as the employer, ensure you’re hiring the best people for your team.

Win/win.

Here are the stages every interview process must adopt, whether you’re a large or small business:

Before we get to the stages, it’s essential to make your interview questions objective, not subjective.

You know what I mean.

Your current interview process is likely riddled with subjective questions like “what’s your favorite color in the rainbow.” However, it’s equally important you don’t ask vague questions like, “Do you make cold calls.”

Of course they do if you’re hiring for a sales role; they’re going to tell you what you want to hear.

But specificity is vital, like, “Because you made cold calls in your last position, pretend you’re cold calling me now for something you were selling at that time.”

Every one of your questions must have a way to rate the answers.

We use a simple point system:

• 2 points = for some kind of positive response or keywords.

• 1 point = for some kind of neutral response or keywords.

• 0 points = for some kind of negative response or keywords.

Your rating system turns subjective questions into an objective way to score a candidate based on fact, not just your feeling of how the interview went.

Stage 1: The Test

Before you book any interview on your calendar, the candidate must undergo an initial screening test.

My company puts these tests right into the job application, requiring a candidate to answer a question that helps us quickly decide if the candidate would be a good fit for our team.

This helps reduce the noise and serves your ideal candidates well, as you’ll have more time to spend with them, not reviewing hundreds of random applications.

Here’s one question we ask for one of our roles to evaluate written communication skills and attention to detail:

“What are the three biggest reasons why you think this position is the right fit for you or what excites you most about this position? What are the three biggest reasons why we should hire you today?”

Stage 2: The Quick Phone Interview

The phone interview should never be more than 15-minutes.

It’s a quick way to see how the candidate presents themselves verbally over the phone. You must ask three questions that give you a clear idea if the candidate has the potential to meet most of your job role expectations.

Here are a few questions we’ve used for a sales position:

• Tell me what you think of when you hear “outreach script?”

• Describe your best sales work situation.

• What do you do when you’re rejected?

Stage 3: The Detailed Face-to-Face Interview

Now things are getting serious.

It’s like the second date with a possible new partner. Things are looking good, and both parties want to see where this goes.

The face-to-face can happen in person or video; it doesn’t matter, especially in today’s remote work world.

The face-to-face is where you ask tougher questions to make sure they can meet the role’s non-negotiable expectations and the company’s core values.

This meeting will take thirty to forty-five minutes.

It’s important to note again that each one of these stages must have a way to objectively rate the candidate based on their responses to your questions.

Stage 4: The Final Interview

This is where you finish asking your list of questions, but it’s best to add scenario-based questions or have the candidate perform some of the duties if it’s a technical role.

A coder will code.

A sales professional will try to sell.

This is also an opportunity for the candidate to peel back the company’s curtain and ask you tough questions.

I also allow job candidates to speak with other people on the team that they’ll directly work with. I’m never on those calls.

It’s crucial that the candidate has a crystal clear picture of who they’ll be working with, so it’s better to find out before they start.

Stage 5: The Celebration Conversation

Congratulations, you made it.

By this stage, you’ll likely have only one to three final candidates depending on the role and how many people you’re looking to hire.

Quality is better than quantity.

Hiring right makes everything easier.

During this stage, a celebration conversation replaces the all-to-familiar job offer.

By the end of this, if you execute it well and rate candidates objectively but also realize you’re speaking to fellow humans, you’ll hire the best team members for every role in your company.