Interview evaluation form template: criteria, rating scale and a competency-based form

The interview is over. The first interviewer says “really good, would fit the team”; the second says “I thought they were weak”. Asking which one is right is pointless, because they are not measuring the same thing: one assessed the feel of the conversation, the other the technical answers. A third person says “I wrote my notes down somewhere”, but the notebook cannot be found. In the decision meeting everyone describes their impression and nobody shows any evidence; in the end the decision goes to whoever speaks loudest. Because you did not test the candidates with the same questions, you cannot compare any of them fairly with the others. The interview evaluation form exists to close this gap.

An interview evaluation form is used to assess all candidates interviewed for the same position against the same criteria and the same rating scale, and it collects the interviewers’ notes and recommendation on a single page. Below you will find an example you can copy and adapt to your own position, a rating scale and a way to link the form to the candidate record.

Interview evaluation form example and criteria

The table below is a starter template. Change the criteria to suit the position; the interviewer fills in the “Score” and “Evidence note” columns without leaving them blank.

Keep two points in mind when using the table. First, the sample question is only a starting point; what matters is that the question is asked of every candidate in the same way. Second, the “Evidence note” column is for recording the concrete example the candidate gave, not the interviewer’s opinion. Writing “described solving the delay in the last project in two steps” instead of “explained well” leaves evidence that others can also assess in the decision meeting.

The top and bottom of the form

• Top section: candidate name, position applied for, interview date, interviewer name, interview type (first interview, technical interview, final interview).
• After the table: two lines each for strengths and points to watch.
• Overall recommendation: advance, hold, do not advance. The reason for the recommendation is written in one or two sentences.
• Interviewer signature or approval, and the date the form was completed.
• Additional information if any: practical notes that are not part of the assessment, such as salary expectation, start date or notice period, are kept in a separate field and not mixed into the score.

Sample adaptation: sales representative position

Let us take a fictional example. You are looking for a new sales representative. Instead of “Role knowledge” you write “understanding customer needs” and phrase the question as “How do you clarify a customer’s request in the first meeting?”. You sharpen “Ownership and follow-through” into “follow-up discipline after meetings” and note in the evidence column whether the candidate gave a concrete follow-up example. The names of the criteria change; the structure stays the same: behaviour description, same question, defined score, evidence.

How do you build a competency-based interview evaluation form?

A competency-based form turns the question “did I like this person?” into “did they show the behaviours the position requires?”. You can follow this order to build one:

1. Choose the five or six competencies that determine success in the position; too many criteria make the form impossible to fill in.
2. Define each competency as an observable behaviour. Write “explains a complex topic simply and in order” instead of “strong communication”.
3. Ask all candidates the same questions for each competency, so the answers can be compared.
4. Listen to answers in the order situation, task, action, result, and take your notes in that order.
5. Decide at the start whether to give more weight to the competencies that matter most for the position.
6. Write the rating scale and the meaning of each score on the form.

How do you define an interview rating scale?

Is the same form used at every interview stage?

In multi-stage processes, scoring the same list of criteria from scratch in every interview tires both the candidate and the interviewer. A more workable approach is to spread the criteria across the stages:

• First interview: communication, interest in the position and basic fit; a short form with three or four criteria.
• Technical or job-specific interview: role knowledge and problem solving; more detailed evidence notes.
• Final interview: teamwork, ownership and how well expectations match; open questions from earlier forms are asked again.

If it is clear which criterion is scored at which stage, the decision meeting does not end up with several scores for the same criterion; every criterion has a clear owner and evidence.

Common mistakes when filling in the form

• The first impression spreads to every score: the impression the candidate makes in the first few minutes sets the score for all criteria.
• High scores for candidates like yourself: scores are given for reasons outside the criteria, such as a shared background or shared interests.
• Filling in the form days later: opinions take the place of memory; fill in the form right after the interview.
• Always giving a three: avoiding a decision hides the differences. Writing an evidence note reduces this tendency.
• Scoring by looking at someone else’s score: interviewers should first fill in the form independently, then compare.

How do I link interview notes to the candidate record?

Even if the form is filled in, if it sits in a separate file from the candidate’s application, CV and the decision made, three months later you cannot answer “why didn’t we move them forward?”. These steps help link the notes to the candidate record:

1. Schedule the interview from the candidate’s record; the date, participants and interview type go into the record.
2. Each interviewer fills in the form right after the interview, without seeing the others’ scores.
3. Scores and evidence notes are added to the candidate’s record; the form does not stay in a separate file.
4. In the decision meeting, all forms are opened side by side from the candidate’s record.
5. The decision and a short rationale are written in the same record; this record is what recruitment reports are built on.

When are paper and Excel enough for interview forms?

If only a few candidates are interviewed for a position, printing the form, filling it in and adding it to the candidate’s file may be enough. Things break down when the number of interviewers and candidates grows: forms stay on different people’s desks, some are never filled in, and scanned sheets are not linked to the candidate’s record. When a combined score sheet is kept in Excel, the evidence notes do not fit in a row and get shortened; exactly the information most needed in the decision meeting is lost.

Interview and decision records in KurumsalPortal

In the Recruitment Management module, once a candidate has been evaluated, the interview is scheduled and the result is recorded. Evaluation notes, interview details and the decision are kept in the candidate’s record, so HR, the hiring manager and the department manager all look at the same record. You can use the criteria table above as the format for your notes. For additional needs, such as a criteria-based scoring template, we work out the scope with you during the needs analysis.

If you want to keep interview and decision records together with the application, take a look at the Recruitment Management module and the overall structure of KurumsalPortal.