Establishing WHO will be a part of the process before it begins allows you to prepare the necessary parties in advance for how you will want them to be involved and what you will need from them.  

At Cormack, we always recommend doing multiple interviews with a candidate.  This is important not only for you, the Employer, but for the Candidate as well.  Multiple meetings provides both you and the prospective candidate with the opportunity to ensure all your questions are answered.  Remember, they are interviewing YOU just as much as you are interviewing THEM to make sure they personally feel like a fit within the business.

If, in past, you have only had one formal interview, make the second meeting more of a "touch base" in a less formal setting.  Invite the Candidate for lunch or a coffee to see if they have any final questions.  Often times, meeting in a less formal setting will put the candidate at ease and result in them sharing information with you they might not have otherwise.  It's also a good opportunity to get to know them on more of a personal level, as the first interview is traditionally reserved for more skills assessment and fit with the role itself.

If you are the sole hiring manager, but still want to have multiple meetings with your prospects, consider involving a colleague in the 2nd meeting.  This second person will help to provide perspective for the Candidate on company culture and what it would be like to work for your business.

Depending on the nature of the role and size of the business you are hiring for, it may be beneficial to consider administering additional assessments as part of the hiring process.  These can include skills or personality assessments and criminal or credit checks.  These additional assessments are a separate stage altogether from the interviews and reference checks, but could be a valuable resource in terms of securing the best possible fit for your open position.

The final step in structuring your hiring process is to establish when, ideally, each stage will take place and assigning accountability to those involved in the process.  A sample of this timeline and assigned accountability is below:

To hire for the Territory Manager position in Alberta we will require 3 interviews to take place;  A phone screen with Beverly in HR, a formal interview with the Hiring Manager and Direct Supervisor, Jessica and a third meeting with a Senior Territory Manager from another region, Steven.  Following the successful completion of the interviews, the prospective Candidate will be put through a criminal and credit check prior to completion of two professional references by Beverly in HR.  Once completed, Beverly will forward the references to Jessica for review and, if satisfied, Jessica will issue a request for an offer of employment to be extended to the prospective Candidate by Beverly.