Hiring Manager Interview Guide
• Why is hiring important
• Responsibilities of a Hiring Manager
• Interview Etiquette
• Interview Structure
• Types of Interviews
• Workable Scorecards
• Competency Feedback
Hiring Manager
Handbook Introduction
Why is hiring important? Hiring allows you to strategically choose the right people for your team. Those who will contribute to growth and add real value. As a hiring manager that is a true privilege, by bringing the right people into your team, you are contributing not only to the success of your team but helping take Nuvei to the next level.
The Handbook: We have put together a handbook (you can think of it as a “buddy”) to guide you into what is needed from you to ensure you have a smooth interview process, the candidate has the best recruitment experience with Nuvei and that we hire the correct person for the role.
Recruitment is a two-way process! As much as we are assessing the candidate, they too are determining whether we, Nuvei are right for them! With an ever more competitive market we have to get things RIGHT, to ensure we are getting the best talent out there, whilst maintaining our brand presence and continue to be an employer of choice!
Responsibilities of a Hiring Manager
As hiring managers, you have certain responsibilities. This will ensure that you and the TA teams work in partnership together. Below is a reminder of these.
Pre-interview:
• Review shortlist of CVs on Workable on the HM review stage
• Put or and add a comment on candidate profile and tag your TA Partner to let them know whether to progress a candidate to HR phone screen.
• Make sure you review feedback from HR interview: This will give you a good insight about the candidate pre-interview and allow you to come up with more tailored questions.
• Please make sure to tag the TA partner when adding a comment/feedback to ensure quick response
• Prepare for the actual interview in advance: ensure you read the CV in time (not 5 minutes before the call).
• Ensure all interview panels are aware that they are part of the interview process and know what skill set they are interviewing for to avoid duplication.
• If you cannot make the interview, please let your TA partner know in time. If you need to cancel in less than 24 hours prior to the interview, please reschedule the interview directly with the candidate.
Responsibilities of a Hiring Manager
Post-interview:
Steps to undertake to keep the recruitment process organized, transparent, and collaborative for everyone involved.
Review and Document Feedback
• Reflect on the candidate’s performance and competencies.
• Communicate with TA partner as to whether to proceed with the candidate or reject them based on qualifications, cultural fit, and other factors.
Participate in Panel Discussions (if applicable)
• After the interview process is completed, if other interviewers were involved, participate in a panel discussion* to ensure everyone’s input is considered.
• Make an unbiased and informed decision based on collective feedback
*A panel discussion is aimed at candidates who have completed the entire interview process. Interviewers review feedback and decide whether to extend an offer. They assess insights from both 1:1 interviews and assessments to ensure a thorough evaluation. Panelists discuss strengths, areas for improvement, and reach a consensus. If not proceeding, constructive feedback is provided via the TA partner. Salary and offer details are not discussed at this stage, and panelists must remain unbiased.
The Interview - Hiring Manager Etiquette
DO's
Introduce yourself: a small introduction about who you are, your team and mapping out the interview is a good way to set expectations and make the candidate feel at ease. If you make the candidate, feel comfortable, they are more likely to perform well at interview.
Before concluding the interview, provide the candidate with a clear understanding of what comes next and expected time frames.
Ensure you turn your teams or any other notifications OFF during the interview so that you can fully concentrate on the candidate.
Ask well thought out competency and behavioral questions that assess the skill set needed for the role. (link to hiring manager training).
Ensure there is sufficient time for the candidate to ask questions at the end.
If interview is onsite – Ensure you offer the candidate a glass of water, make any suitable adjustment if needed for the interview, show them around the office.
Ensure you book a meeting room to do this and check that its available prior to the interview.
The Interview - Hiring Manager Etiquette
DONT's
Please refrain from messaging other interviewers during the interview. This is highly distracting for the candidates and leads to a bad candidate experience. As a hiring manager it is crucial to stay engaged and attentive during interviews. If you are distracted, you’re more likely to misinterpret responses, miss key details or make an unfair judgment about the candidate.
If you realize early in the interview that the candidate may not be the right fit for the role, it’s important to give them the full opportunity to share their experience. Do not cut the interview short. This can leave a negative impression. We want all candidates to have a positive experience with Nuvei.
When conducting a video interview, avoid taking the call in a busy office or noisy environment as background noise can make it difficult for both you and the candidate to focus. Find a quiet and private room. Ensure good lighting and a stable internet connection.
Don’t discuss compensation package. As a hiring manager it’s important to avoid discussing compensation packages with the candidate. Only Talent Acquisition members are authorized and have the most up-to-date information. If a candidate asks about compensation, politely redirect the to the Talent Acquisition Partner.
The Interview - Hiring Manager Etiquette
DONT's
continued...
Do not ask any personal questions (such as sexual preference, marital status, age, residence)* – ask only questions that are relevant to the job requirements. If such topics occur during your interview, although it may feel like harmless conversation, we want to ensure that every candidate feels evaluated solely on their skills and experience and want to avoid any comments that could unintentionally make a candidate feel like they’ve been discounted or that a non-job related factor played a role in their rejection.
Avoid bias decision (link – Brainier )
Do not move candidate to the next stage, your TA partner will do this once they have read your feedback.
*It is illegal to ask such personal questions. You may be recorded by a candidate without knowing.
Interview Structure
Introduction and Welcome
The interviewer briefly introduces themselves and their role, setting a positive tone and outlining the interview structure to help the candidate feel comfortable.
Candidate’s Background & Experience
The candidate walks through their resume, highlighting relevant skills and accomplishments. The interviewer probes deeper to understand past experiences and challenges.
Technical Skills/Assessment
For technical roles, candidates may complete problem-solving tasks or demonstrations to assess practical skills and real-world problem-solving abilities.
Behavioral and Situational Questions
Behavioral questions assess past experiences and decision-making, while situational questions evaluate how candidates would handle hypothetical challenges related to the role
Culture Fit & Values Alignment
This interview assesses how well the candidate’s values align with the company’s culture. These questions will be based on our core values. Questions might explore topics like teamwork, adaptability or leadership style. There will be a set of questions for each of our values you can choose from.
Candidate’s Questions & Interview Closure
Towards the end of the interview, candidates should be given the opportunity to ask questions to determine if the role and company are a good fit for them. The interviewer should then conclude by explaining potential next steps in the hiring process and timeframe to receive feedback.
Overview of Company and RoleThe interviewer provides an overview of the company’s mission, values, and culture, along with job responsibilities and expectations, ensuring the candidate understands the role.
Post-Interview Evaluation
After the interview, the interviewer should add competency-based feedback into Workable within 24 hours of completing the interview. Feedback should be shared based on specific criteria, such as technical skills, behavioral competencies, cultural fit, and alignment with the role. The hiring panel should be involved in a panel discussion* for all candidates that have completed the entire interview process.
*Refer
Types of Interview - How to assess a candidate
Below are different types of interviews. These will be often set/conducted by the hiring manager with the exception of the HR Screen.
HR screen is the 1st call a candidate will have in the interview process. This is a preliminary conversation between the candidate and the Talent Partner of usually 30 minutes. The purpose of it is to assess whether the candidate is a good fit for the role and the company. The Talent Partner will go through the candidates CV,asking questions around their experience, understand their career goals, motivations and culture fit. They will also confirm the candidate’s salary expectations, notice period, right to work and other admin. *For specific roles where we've created automated process, the initial conversation will be conducted by the hiring managers or via a self-recorded video screen.
A Competency Interview is designed to assess a candidate’s skills, behaviors and experience in relation to key competencies required for the specific role. The purpose of having competency-interviews ensures a fair and objective evaluation. They provide a structured and standardized approach to assess all candidates consistently. They support better hiring decisions as by doing them they make data driven hiring choices by using concrete examples of past performances. It also ensures unbiased decision making.
Presentation Interview is presentation-style interview, common for commercial teams, requires candidates to present a case study. It assesses presentation skills, communication, and response to questions. Candidates prepare in advance with a slide deck based on given requirements. The interview includes an introduction, the presentation, and a Q&A session where candidates discuss their work and ask about the role.
Types of Assessments
Technical Assessment: Technical assessments evaluate candidates' technical skills and problem-solving abilities. They can be take-home tasks, platform-based tests (e.g., CoderPad), or live technical interviews. The goal is to assess technical proficiency, logical thinking, and technical quality while ensuring candidates can handle real-world challenges effectively.
Technical Platforms: Currently Nuvei has access to CoderPad as a technical assessment provider. CoderPad is an online technical interview platform that helps teams assess candidates' coding skills in real time. It provides a live, collaborative coding environment where candidates can write, run, and debug code in multiple programming languages.
The PI Assessment (Predictive Index Assessment) is a behavioral and cognitive assessment aiming at evaluating job candidates and employees. It helps employers understand a person's natural behavioral tendencies and cognitive ability to determine job fit, team dynamics, and leadership potential.*
*If you are a hiring manager looking to integrate CoderPad or the PI assessment tool into your hiring process, please contact the designated Talent Acquisition (TA) partner for your role/region.
Workable Scorecards
What are these? A scorecard is a structured way to evaluate candidates during the hiring process. Their purpose is to help interviewers rate applicants based on key job-related criteria/competencies. This ensures:
• A fair and consistent assessment
• All candidates are asked the same questions in the same order
• Responses are evaluated via a scorecard using a consistent rating scale
• The scorecards you create are automatically attached to the appropriate stage of the candidate’s profile, accessible by the whole team
• Feedback is gathered on the candidate profile, where the team can review and take action
You can have a scorecard for all interviews whether competency or values interview. Your TA partner will help you create these.
Workable Scorecards
A scorecard typically includes: Key competencies (e.g. technical skills, communication, leadership, Values)
Ratings:
:The candidate answers the questions extremely well and/or possesses the competency.
: The candidate answered the question well and/or possess the competency.
: The candidate didn’t answer the question well and/or doesn’t possess the competency.
Comments: You leave comments on your scorecard to explain the reason for your rating. It is good practice to do this, not only for useful feedback but also to aid your Talent Partner
Culture Interview
A Culture Interview assesses whether a candidate aligns with a company’s core values, mission and work environment.
Unlike technical or skill-based interviews, this focuses on behaviors, attitudes and decision-making styles that reflect the company’s culture.
The purpose of these are to:
• Ensure new hires fit within the team and company ethos
• Reinforces company values, helping to maintain a strong, unified culture
• Reduces turnover by selecting employees who thrive in the organization’s environment
• Promotes better teamwork, engagement, and long termsuccess.
Why is it important for Nuvei?
Hiring skills alone isn’t enough. Employees who align with company culture tend to be more motivated, productive and collaborative. A strong culture fit leads to higher retention, better performance and more positive work environment.
Culture Interview
Here is an example of a Culture Interview Scorecard based on one of Nuvei’s values. In practice you would pick 2/3 values to assess against.
As you can see, the value is ‘innovative’. These are questions that the candidate will get asked to assess whether he/she shows innovation as a value.
On the right you have the review button. This is a good way to interview for values, having such a scorecard allows consistency as all candidates will be asked the same question. It is also a data approach, as you can always go back to your scorecard when making a final decision.
A Culture interview is also a great decider. If 2 candidates are of equal level in interview performance and would bring the same experience to the role, the values interview can be the deciding factor based on their culture fit to the company.
Feedback
The purpose of feedback: Feedback is hugely important for: 1) The Candidate, 2) The Talent Partner and 3) The Hiring Manager. Let’s explore these further.
The Candidate:
Enhanced Candidate Experience: Candidates invest a lot of time interviewing with us and have shown a keen interest in Nuvei by doing so. Providing timely and constructive feedback is essential for maintaining a positive candidate experience and strengthening our employer brand.
Promote Employer Brand: Whether a candidate moves forward in the process or not, thoughtful feedback shows respect for their time and effort. Constructive feedback leaves the candidate with a positive impression of the company and therefore are more likely to recommend the company to others and also re-apply in the future (only because the candidate isn’t successful the first time round doesn’t mean they won’t be right for a future role).
The Talent Partner:
Candidate feedback is key for the Talent Partner. By providing feedback, the Talent Partner is able to refine the hiring process and candidate searches, improve candidate experience and ensure the right talent is selected. It also helps the Talent Partner better align future talent pipeline with hiring managers’ needs.
Feedback
What is competency-based feedback?
Competency-based feedback focuses on evaluating a candidate’s performance based on specific skills, behaviors and attributes required for the role. It is NOT a subjective opinion, or a ‘gut’ feel.
Good and Bad example of competency-based feedback for a
Business Development
Manager:
Good example:
‘Strengths: The candidate demonstrates a strong ability to identify and capitalize on new business opportunity within X sector, providing examples of past successes in expanding market research. They showed a structured approach to lead generation, leveraging industry events, affiliate partnerships and B2B relationships to drive revenue growth’.
They also showed strong negotiation skills, highly engaging and a team player.
Bad example:
I didn’t get a good feeling about the candidate. They Just don’t seem like a good fit’
Why is this bad? This is based on personal impression rather than the job-related competencies. Provides no actionable insights for improvement. This can also introduce bias into the hiring process.
Reminders:
• Timing is key: Make notes during interview and ideally write feedback straight after interview. This will ensure the feedback is fresh in your mind.
• Let the Talent Partner know within 48 hours to ensure a good candidate experience
• Leave feedback at each stage of the interview process whether it’s a 1st call or the final interview.