Corporate recruiting departments are under stress nowadays.  The technology transformation, increased volume of applications, and often, reduced resources to get stuff done have put strains on corporate recruiters.  One of the biggest stressors is loss of control over hiring managers.  There is such a large variance on interviewing skills across an organization that it’s difficult to get quality and consistency from hiring manager interviewers.  And the difference between landing exceptional candidates or settling for mediocre ones comes down to one critical factor: hiring manager interviewing skills. If you’ve read my posts regularly, you know my feelings about hiring manager interviewing skills.  And, while many organizations invest heavily in other areas such as sourcing and employer branding, they often overlook where candidates form their lasting impression of your company—the interview itself.

After working with hundreds of hiring managers in all departments across many industries, I’ve identified four essential skills that separate exceptional interviewers from the rest. Corporate recruiters, train your hiring managers to master these skills and you’ll not only improve your hiring successes but may just reduce one level of stress in your work as well! Today I’ll introduce two of those skills and we’ll finish up next week with the final two.

Less than 3% of hiring managers opt for interviewer training or coaching and less than 10% of employers mandate it.

1. Strategic Questions – Moving Beyond Surface-Level Questions

The most effective hiring managers understand that great interviews are built on great questions. Too many interviewers rely on predictable queries like “What’s your greatest weakness?” or “Where do you see yourself in five years?” What do these questions truly reveal that assist in making a confident hiring decision?

Instead, interviewers should focus on behavioral and situational questions that uncover how candidates actually perform under real-world conditions. They should ask about specific challenges they’ve faced, decisions they’ve made under pressure, and how they’ve handled failure or conflict. For example, rather than asking “Are you a team player?” try “Tell me about a time when you had to work with a difficult team member to achieve a critical deadline. How did you approach the situation, and what was the outcome?” (Side note – Yes/No questions rarely make good interview questions if you want to go beyond surface-level).

The best questions are those that are directly tied to the position requirements and company challenges. Prepare a mix of technical, behavioral, and cultural fit questions that build upon each other throughout the conversation (if this sounds hard to do, use AI!). This strategic approach helps paint a complete picture of the candidate’s capabilities and potential.

2. Listening Skills

In my humble opinion, most hiring managers are terrible listeners during interviews. Interviewing is a necessary evil for them that takes away from their real job. So they don’t “dial in” and give candidates their full attention. When they miss crucial information being shared, they make poor assessments of candidate abilities.

Active listening in interviews means giving candidates full attention, asking thoughtful follow-up questions, and picking up on both verbal and non-verbal cues. When a candidate mentions a project that didn’t go well, don’t just check it off the list and move on. Dig deeper. What specifically went wrong? How did they respond? What would they do differently next time?

Interviewers should pay attention to inconsistencies in their responses or areas where they seem particularly passionate or hesitant. These moments often reveal the most valuable insights about a candidate’s true capabilities and motivations. Training managers on behavioral-based interviewing techniques goes a long way in this regard.

72% of candidates say the efficiency of the interview process affects their decision to accept job offers

It’s important to note that most interviewers aren’t born with these skills or haven’t practiced them enough in an interviewing environment to get good at them.  That’s the nature of recruiting.  Great recruiting departments are always educating hiring managers, whether it’s a two-minute lesson during the kickoff of the search or full-scale interview training workshops.  Recruiters should be relentless about getting managers up to speed with their interviewing skills

Next week we will complete this series by discussing two more key skills for hiring managers.  In the meantime, if your company needs to improve hiring manager interview skills, send me a note or reach out to the team at ES Talent Solutions (info@ESTalentSolutions.com).  With a free consultation, you may uncover a few tips for improvements with your hiring teams.

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Keywords: corporate recruiting, interviewing skills, hiring managers, behavioral-based interviews

ES Talent Solutions assists corporate recruiting departments in getting the most out of their resources. We can make life easy for busy recruiting departments by conducting audits and identifying complexities while creating a roadmap for implementing efficiencies. If you haven’t had a thorough review of your recruiting ecosystem, you’re missing out! Contact ESTS (info@ESTalentSoluions.com) today for a recruiting diagnostic to fully leverage your talent acquisition function.