How to make interview notes
Uncover best practices for making interview notes that contribute to informed hiring decisions and help overcome biases.
Employers who conduct effective interviews are well equipped to identify and hire the talent their organisation needs to meet its strategic goals and objectives.
One crucial, yet sometimes overlooked, component of candidate interviews is note-taking. Comprehensive interview notes can simplify the process of:
- Determining the strongest candidate
- Providing feedback following an interview
- Producing evidence in interview disputes
- Recalling important details
However, it’s not as straightforward as jotting down everything a candidate says in response to questions. Instead, you’re looking to focus on noting down key information.
In this article, we delve into the importance of interview notes, explore best practices for note-taking, and provide insights on streamlining the process.
The importance of taking effective interview notes
Knowing how to take interview notes that keep a useful record of the interview is vital in the modern workplace for several key reasons. This includes:
- Improved decision-making: During an interview, you’re looking for candidates with the desired competencies and experience who seem like a good fit for the organisational culture. Comprehensive notes can assist in tracking which candidates are ticking these boxes, help you to remember important details about candidates, and make it easier to decide between two candidates that might otherwise appear to be neck-to-neck.
- Compliance with legal obligations: There are numerous laws hiring managers need to adhere to, such as the Equality Act 2010. If, for example, a candidate complains that they didn’t get a job due to discrimination, or feels they were asked discriminatory questions during the interview, interview notes can be used as evidence.
- Mitigating bias: Taking notes is key to reducing bias in interviews, as it helps you to better identify candidates who are a good fit based purely on their competencies and skills, rather than any factor like age, race or gender. Overcoming bias helps organisations comply with their legal obligations and enhance diversity which can in turn boost performance. For example, companies with diverse executive teams are 25% more likely to experience above-average profitability.
- Improving candidate experience: Improving the candidate experience is essential to bolstering an employer’s reputation and nurturing future talent pools. Interview notes play a crucial role in this by enabling prompt and constructive feedback and eliminating the multiple rounds of interviews that can deter candidates by ensuring all relevant and important information is captured.
Pre-interview preparation
Effective note-taking that contributes to a smooth and successful hiring process requires preparation in advance. As a result, before the interview itself begins, it’s important to consider:
- Making notes using the candidate’s CV, cover letter, and any other relevant material. This will help you to connect with the candidate over their specific experiences and give you areas to probe for further information. Make sure you’ve got their application materials printed out for reference during the interview.
- Using a system to objectively score each candidate on the required competencies based on their answers. This can reduce bias during the process and help you to take your notes in a quicker and more organised fashion once the interview begins. This is especially effective during competency-based interviews.
- Deciding who asks questions and who takes the notes during the interview. There will often be more than one person conducting an interview, so whether it’s a full panel interview or just two people, you need to be prepared in order to ensure that the interview runs smoothly.
How to make interview notes
There’s more to taking interview notes than trying to scribble down everything a candidate says. You need to take effective and brief notes, while making sure the candidate knows your attention is on them.
Follow these steps to take good interview notes while carrying out an effective interview.
1. Tell the candidate you’re going to take notes
Job seekers appreciate being kept informed about each stage of the hiring process, and that goes for what they should expect during an interview.
Telling the candidate that you’ll be taking notes, and explaining why, ensures they won’t feel put off if you’re taking a few seconds to finish writing up their response to a question.
It’s also an opportunity to explain how you’re ensuring a fair and objective assessment, which could also help to put the candidate at ease.
2. Practice active listening
While interview notes are important, it’s just as crucial that candidates feel they are being listened to while giving their answers.
It’s therefore important to prioritise active listening over taking notes while candidates are answering. Make sure to keep frequent eye contact during in-person interviews, or for video interviews look into the screen to show you’re paying attention.
During a phone interview, you could give quiet and short affirmations when the candidate comes to the end of a sentence. This will help you to keep your attention on the candidate and what they have to say while also taking the all-important interview notes.
3. Keep notes concise
Keep the notes short and sweet. This will help to keep you focused on the candidate and reduce the amount of time you spend writing.
You don’t need to be adept in shorthand to do this. Stick to the facts and the key points in the candidate’s answers. If there’s a note you want to follow up on, perhaps underline it or put a star by it so you can find and address it once the candidate has finished speaking.
This is where the real skill in interview note-taking lies – identifying the relevant information within candidate responses.
Use clear bullet points for any information that either confirms or questions whether the candidate meets the required competencies, experience, or cultural fit.
4. Ask candidates for clarity
Don’t be afraid of asking a candidate to repeat themselves to clarify their answer to a specific question.
Doing so can help to ensure your notes are taken accurately, that you’ve understood clearly what the candidate was saying, and helps to avoid potential misunderstandings.
Candidates may reveal more relevant information by expanding on an answer, which can help to strengthen their case and improve your understanding of their fit for the role.
Note-taking best practices
On top of the essentials outlined above, there are some additional best practices you may want to bear in mind when taking notes to make sure you’re doing so productively.
Below we’ve outlined some top tips to help you make effective notes during the interview process.
Schedule an appropriate amount of time
Interviews need to be long enough so the candidate can dedicate an appropriate amount of time to their responses and have some bit of back and forth with the interviewer.
However, you also need to factor in a bit of extra time for note-taking. If you’ve explained at the outset that you’ll be taking notes, the candidate will understand if you’re taking a few seconds following their answer to write them up.
This is fine, as long as the candidate isn’t losing a significant amount of the time they need to answer your questions effectively.
Look for STAR answers
This is especially useful when candidates are answering competency-based interview questions.
Noting the candidate’s answers based on the STAR technique (situation, task, action, result) will give you a clear note-taking structure for each question.
It is common to suggest to candidates prior to the interview to break their answers down into this structure, as this can help them to better express their answers.
Leverage the right technology
The right technology and software can significantly improve interview note-taking. For instance, when conducting a video conference interview over Zoom or Teams, with the candidate’s consent you can record the interview and compile notes later.
New and innovative software can now also transcribe interviews and deploy artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that summarise responses and highlight key points in candidates’ answers.
However, transparency is also crucial when using these applications. Our research shows that while over half (52%) of candidates are comfortable applying for a job where a small part of the recruitment process is driven by AI, the majority (89%) want to be made aware of the use of AI in advance.
Despite the array of solutions available, some recruiters still prefer taking interview notes by hand, as the pen and paper approach can be less distracting for candidates than typing out notes as they respond to questions. Ultimately, it’s down to recruiters to decide which method or technology best suits them and harness it to produce notes that enhance the hiring process.
Compare notes
If there is more than one of you conducting the interview, comparing notes is great practice.
This can help you and your colleagues to see how others have interpreted a candidate’s answers, and it will assist you in building a more holistic view of their performance.
For example, if there are any points of contention or disagreement regarding a candidate or their answers, your accurate interview notes should help to clear up any confusion.
Handle candidate information sensitively
Like any other sensitive information a candidate has shared as part of their application, the notes taken during an interview need to be carefully handled, stored, and removed after a certain period of time.
As a result, it’s vital to ensure that there is a data protection policy in place for the safe storage of the data and compliance with GDPR.
Furthermore, this information should only be shared with relevant colleagues, such as another hiring manager who is involved in the hiring process for that candidate.
The art of effective interview note-taking
Interview notes are a crucial part of conducting good interviews that allow employers to:
- Identify the right candidates
- Comply with legal obligations
- Mitigate bias
- Enhance the candidate experience
To excel in this task, recruiters should look to implement best practices and find their ideal note-taking method or technology, whether through innovative software, traditional handwritten notes, or AI-powered solutions.
By making effective note-taking a priority, recruiters can elevate their hiring practices, creating a win-win scenario for employers and candidates alike.