Hiring new team members comes with a lot of responsibility! As an interviewer, you have to listen, speak, take notes and keep track of the conversation, all at the same time. As you do more and more interviews, you end up having the same discussion repeatedly, and details of who said what starts to get mixed up.
This article will outline how you can take more effective meeting notes during interviews, get organized, and what one tool could be a complete game-changer for you!

Automate Interview Note Taking: Tips for Recruiters and HR

When it comes to the hiring process, it’s nearly impossible to remember who said what after interviewing multiple candidates. However, interviewers who take notes during the interview can later score and rank the candidates to make a final decision.
Here are some of our best tips on how to take practical interview notes:
1. Explain why you’re taking notes
Candidates will have more confidence in the interview process if they know from the beginning that their responses are important enough to capture. Let candidates know you’ll be taking notes on important things to help you recall them after the interview.
2. Clarify unclear responses
If a candidate’s answer is unclear, ask them to repeat it or clarify. It may be a matter of not understanding what you said, or the candidate could be trying to avoid answering a question. Having clear responses to questions is vital, as it will help you make an informed decision about who to hire.
3. Take notes in a separate document
Do not take notes directly on the application form that the candidate sent in. Instead, use a separate document to keep track of the conversation, whether by hand or on your laptop. This will also allow you to write down comments and scores without the candidate seeing them.
4. Automate your meeting notes
Finally, the best way to take accurate meeting notes is by using a meeting recording software like Notiv. Doing this will allow you to have a word-for-word recording and transcript of everything that was said. You will be able to share this with people who need to be aware of what was discussed, such as team leads, C-level executives, and other decision-makers.

Why Recruiters Should Transcribe Interviews

Working in HR entails speaking with a lot of people. Understandably, it is difficult to keep track of precisely what was said in every conversation, especially when it comes to interviews because you end up speaking to so many people and having similar conversations over and over again. While note-taking is an important skill to have regardless, here are the top 3 reasons you should keep accurate notes during interviews.
1. The ability to distinguish between candidates
When you have many different candidates lined up for one position, it can be easy to forget who said what and come to a final, well-informed decision about who to hire. By taking notes or recording the interview, a recruiter can differentiate between candidates’ qualifications, capabilities, and goals.
2. Scoring candidates
By taking accurate notes during the interview, you’re able to compare skills between candidates and weigh up other factors, such as desired salary and past employment history.
3. Protection for the recruiter
In extreme cases, recording the interview can protect the recruiter against claims of unfair discrimination in the hiring process. In addition, by capturing the conversation word for word, you can have clear evidence of what was said and defend your hiring decision if needed.

Meeting Transcription Notes for Recruiting

By having a recording and transcript of your interviews, you’ll be able to:

• Focus more on the conversation at hand,

• Spend less time taking notes yourself,

• Evaluate candidates more effectively,

• Keep a word for word record of what was discussed,

• Share the details of the interview with decision-makers.

Very few people have direct contact with candidates during the typical hiring process. Companies mostly rely on HR reps to make the right decisions. With Notiv, you can get the whole team involved. Recording the interview will allow teammates, team leads, and other players to know the candidate and offer their input. After candidates have been shortlisted, managers and C-level executives can look through the recording and transcript and make their final decision.
You will create a more efficient hiring process when you start implementing this with all the candidates you interview. In addition, having a recording and transcript of all your interviews will allow you to stay organized, reach important decisions faster and store important information in the cloud where others in your organization can access it.

Take Notes During Interviews with Notiv

We’ve outlined all the fundamental reasons you should keep records and transcripts of your meetings, but we’re now left with one question – how?
Notiv is here to help!
Notiv is an AI-powered note-taker that slides into your meetings and takes notes while you stay on track and focus on the conversation. Notiv will record, transcribe and summarise your meeting with action points, highlights, and rundowns of what went on.
By connecting Notiv to your Google or Office calendar, it will automatically join your meeting. Then, as your meeting goes on, Notiv silently does all the note-taking for you because we know how difficult it is to listen actively, speak and take notes simultaneously! To get more details on how Notiv works, click here.
After your meeting ends, Notiv will send you the recording, transcript, and summary, and you can share it with relevant parties like C-level executives and other decision-makers.
Additionally, Notiv allows you to search the transcript for a specific word or phrase if you need to remember a small detail, which ends up saving you hours!

Conclusion

We created Notiv to give employees (and organizations as a whole) a productivity and efficiency boost
Save yourself time, energy, and resources by using Notiv to write your meeting notes!
To find out more about how to take notes more expertly, click here.