You’ve met strong people interested in your role. You’ve shortlisted some, interviewed them, discussed and interviewed them…but still ended up with no hire or worse, a hire who doesn’t stick. Are you confident you got the most out of your interviews? We look at the most common mistakes people make when trying to fill a role, and how to improve your interview success rate.
What does ‘interview success’ actually mean?
For many, “success” means simply filling the role. But there are multiple ways to measure a successful interview process:
- Retention: The person stays beyond the probation period.
- Performance: They hit targets and add value early.
- Cultural fit: They work well with the team and align with company values.
- Offer acceptance rate: Your offering is great enough for top professionals to keep saying yes.
- Time-to-fill: The process is efficient, without sacrificing quality.
Where interviews tend to fall short
Even experienced interviewers fall into these common traps:
- Inconsistent structure
If every interview is different, you can’t create well-rounded, fair comparisons. Different interviewers ask different questions, settings vary, and inconsistent stage counts can lead to missed opportunities.
- Overlooking soft skills and team fit
Focusing only on technical ability can lead you to miss red flags in communication, adaptability, or collaboration. You can train for skill, but personality and team fit are much harder to develop.
- No clear criteria
Without defined criteria, decisions rely on instinct or “gut feel”, and that’s where bias creeps in. Even a simple scorecard listing essential skills, desirable traits, and role-specific behaviours will help you make clear, informed decisions.
- Poor process design
Too many stages? You’ll lose candidates. Too few? You risk making a rushed decision. The right process depends on your team, the role, and the skills you’re hiring for, but it should give both sides enough time to assess fit.
- Weak candidate experience
Long delays, unclear feedback, or disorganised interviews damage your employer brand and can cause drop-off. Understand that an interview is as much a space for them to learn about you as it is for you to learn about them.
The good news is you don’t need to overhaul your entire hiring process to see results. Small, targeted changes can totally transform your outcomes.
How to improve your interview success rate
Use a structured scorecard or interview template
Consistency reduces bias and makes comparing candidates easier. You don’t need a complex system, just a basic template done well.
Make the process lean but clear
Cut unnecessary stages, clarify expectations, and keep momentum high. At the end of the day, you don’t want to waste your time or theirs.
Benchmark the role properly
Salary misalignment can kill an offer before it’s made. Use market data to get it right (have you downloaded ours yet?)
Strong interviews are about clarity, consistency, and creating a process that reflects the standards of your team and your organisation. When hiring managers get this right, the benefits go far beyond filling a vacancy. You’ll reduce time-to-hire, boost offer acceptance rates, and bring in people who add value quickly and stay longer.
As recruiters, we work with businesses to identify what’s slowing their hiring down and how they can fix it. Whether it’s refining interview questions, introducing scorecards, benchmarking salaries, or streamlining processes, we help you secure the right people faster, without sacrificing quality.