by Gail Bertram

Created on: August 05, 2008   Last Updated: June 13, 2009

"I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies."

Lawrence Bossidy, Director at Merck pharmaceutical.

In every company, large or small, time is money. When every second counts, finding a swift and effective way to interview potential employees is an essential skill for any manager. In between discussions with clients, meetings with colleagues, and research and development tasks, few managers can find time for a bite to eat, let alone conduct rounds of interviews to find the ideal candidate for that all-important role. Yet it is not something that should be shoved to the bottom of the pile. A good executive can take a company to new heights, while a bad choice could spell disaster.

Internal human resources, often the first port of call in any hiring process, may do nothing more than sort through the copious resumes and remove the most hopeless from the running. As a result you are faced with another stack of paperwork, and little progress has been made in choosing your newest employee.

The question: How to conduct potentially numerous interviews efficiently and still recruit the best possible candidate to your team?

By putting the following interview strategies into action, you can reduce the time it takes to choose a candidate without compromising on quality.

Top Nine Strategies for Conducting Effective Executive Interviews

1. Prepare Yourself
Success is all in the preparation. By developing an interview plan, applicants can be questioned and analyzed efficiently, and you can receive the information that you need to make the best decision for the company as a whole.

The first step is to carefully consider the role for which you are hiring. Do they need experience winning contracts? Must they be aware of standards such as CE marking, or be familiar with applying for pre-market approval (PMA) such as an FDA 501(k), or do they require knowledge of FDA approval policies?

Construct a personal model of the ideal applicant. How should they behave? Do they need to cope with stress, work in a team, and conduct presentations? Make a list of which behavioral characteristics would be present in the ideal candidate.

Familiarize yourself with the resumes. This is a time-consuming task, particularly if you have twenty or more applicants for the job. However, spending five minutes scanning through each resume can give you an idea of where each applicant's strengths and weaknesses lie, and

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