Skill-Based Interview Methods & Implementation

Learn different ways of designing and facilitating neuroinclusive skill-base

Written By Sean Gill (Super Administrator)

Updated at February 13th, 2025

Table of Contents

Skill-Based Hiring Three Tiers of Skill-Based Hiring Keys to Preparing for a Skill-Based Interview: How to Construct More Effective Interview Questions Inclusive Communication in Interviews Environmental Adjustments Key Points

Skill-Based Hiring

As a reminder, Skill-Based Hiring is a talent management method that cuts through bias by focusing solely on candidates’ competencies in role-related skills. The guide below will provide explanations and actionable steps that HR professionals and hiring managers can take to implement skill-based hiring in their talent attraction process.

In this module, we will cover:

Three tiers of skill-based hiring
Keys to preparing for skill-based interviews
How to construct more effective interview questions
Inclusive communication in interviews
Inclusive environmental adjustments

Three Tiers of Skill-Based Hiring

We will organize skill-based interview methods into three tiers of implementation. Each tier will involve a more significant change of process as well as a more significant improvement to interview effectiveness.

Tier 1: Skill-based Q&A format

Tier 2: Demonstrating skills by showcasing past work

Tier 3: Demonstrating skills through a custom project

Let's break down the details and benefits of each of these tiers!

1. Skill-Based Q&A Format
What: This approach is essentially focused around creating structure and clarity in the interview process. The main mode of the interview is still Q&A dialogue, but we structure those questions more intentionally to get the most from the candidate and provide the best data for the interviewer. (See below for a diagram explaining how to improve your interview questions)
Ease of adoption	This “tier” of skill-based interviewing is the simplest to adopt and implement within any traditional interview process. Without adding any additional steps, thoughtful and deliberate changes to the way questions are crafted and communicated make the process more accessible and effective for all parties.
Flexibility of subject matter	Because changes to the interview process are minimal in this tier, there is no limit to the reach of where this method can be applied. The core concepts of clear communication, skill-oriented questions, and neuroinclusive supports are not specific to any industry, career-level, or subject matter.
Universal benefit	The concepts mentioned above are not only for aiding neurodivergent candidates. Candidates of all neurotypes and with all kinds of communication-styles benefit from clearer communication and interview questions that directly address the specific skills for the role.

2. Demonstrating Skills by Showcasing Past Work
What: This approach builds upon the previous one by adding one component to the interview: an opportunity for the candidate to show their past work as a demonstration of the skills sought by the hiring team. This can be done as a separate portion of the interview where the candidate chooses projects to present, or it can be done as part of the Q&A where the candidate is allowed/encouraged to answer the interviewer’s questions by way of examples from their past.
See applied skills	Unlike a strictly Q&A format, allowing the candidate to share past work lets them “show” rather than “tell,” which is often more comfortable for candidates and also presents more concrete evidence to the interviewer as to each candidate’s technical abilities.
No additional work for interviewer	Incorporating a work showcase, whether as its own portion of the interview or as part of the Q&A responses, requires only the budgeting of time from the interviewer. Other than informing the candidate that they are encouraged to prepare past work to share, no extra steps or materials are needed to enable this valuable interview component.
Reduced demand on “interview skills”	Many times, a candidate is selected for hire based on their ability to story-tell and build rapport during an interview. For most roles, however, those are not critical, required skills. By bringing a demonstration of past work into the interview, we add an objective, concrete element based on technical skills by which to compare candidates and more accurately select the best fit.

3. Demonstrating Skills Through a Custom Project
What: This method of interview is the most robust interview transformation. While this method does require some preparatory work from the interviewer, it yields the most relevant, realistic, and thorough demonstration of the skills needed for the role. This method relies on a small project to be created by the interview team based on the exact type of work that would be done in the role. This should be an assignment that can be completed in 2-5 hours to manage time demand on the candidate. The candidate completes the project independently on their own time over the course of a few days (usually 2-4 days) and presents their work in the interview as one would in a team meeting.
Direct execution of role-specific skills	In this method, the interviewer has full control of what skills they are asking the candidate to demonstrate, and they get to see these skills used in a fixed amount of time to gauge the candidates’ familiarity with these skills. This provides clear, concrete evidence of which candidate will be the best selection for the role based on objective, skill-specific criteria.
Understand candidates’ problem solving approach	By providing a project in real time, where all candidates have the same amount of time to complete the same project, the interviewer is able to see how each candidate approaches understanding, ideating, and completing the task. This, along with potentially answering follow-up questions from the candidate, allows a team to identify whose level of support need, independence, or collaborative skill fits best with the workflow of the team.
Independent of communication style	While every interview involves some dialogue, and this method still involves a realistic amount of presenting one’s work, the primary focus for evaluating candidates in this method is on the work that they complete independently. Not only is this more indicative of the communication needed in the role, it has shown to allow some candidates’ technical abilities to outshine their differences in communication style, putting them more fairly in consideration than a dialogue-only interview would.

Keys to Preparing for a Skill-Based Interview:

✔ Provide clear, detailed logistics

Share the steps of the interview process, agenda & attendees of each meeting, virtual meeting platform instructions, and general etiquette expectations for each meeting (cameras on/off, dress code, whether or not to prepare questions) at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting.

✔ Provide questions in advance

Share the planned interview questions at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting. This will allow the candidate to prepare themselves and provide all the information sought by the interviewer. Providing this information in advance also allows candidates to potentially prepare past work samples to supplement their answers and provide more information for the interviewer.

Some may argue that this provides an unfair advantage to candidates. That would not be true if this approach was implemented with all interviewees. By allowing the candidate to prepare, the interviewer should expect more complete, detailed, and insightful responses to their questions.

Note that it is ok if the meeting/interview goes “off script” while maintaining clear, skill-based questioning and sticking to the general topics provided in advance. Some natural dialogue and follow-up questions are important for both parties to be thorough and understood.

✔ Proactively offer accommodations or support

Ask the interviewee if they have any accommodation or support needs for the upcoming meeting, and provide a sample list of the types of neuroinclusive adjustments that are available.

✔ Educate and prepare all interviewers

If multiple team members (such as a mentor or team lead) will be joining the hiring manager in the interview, it would be best to provide those attendees with this guide or a neurodiversity training before the interview to ensure that they are following neuroinclusive best practices for all interviewees.

How to Construct More Effective Interview Questions

Keys to Success:

Be clear and concrete!
Build questions around a specific necessary skill
Avoid vague, abstract hypotheticals

✔ Do this:	✘ Don't do this:
Provide clear scenarios, examples, and specifics. ex: “We manage the intake and cleansing of over a million points of data each day. Have you had any past projects involving a large, steady intake of data?”	Pose vague hypotheticals that can be easily misinterpreted. ex: “How do you think you'll cope with working if there are lots of interruptions and distractions?”
Ask about the candidates' real past experiences. ex: “In your last job, did you do any software testing or development?”	Ask opened ended or extremely broad questions. ex: “What type of work interests you?”
Be prepared to rephrase a question. Allow time for candidates to think, but if they do not answer after a few moments, you may want to propose, “may I ask you the question in a different way?”	Leave a candidate struggling uncomfortably with a poorly worded question. It is your responsibility to make your intention and meaning understood!

Inclusive Communication in Interviews

In addition to carefully choosing your wording and questions, give room to allow for the unique nuances of each candidate's communication style. Be mindful of how divergence from the perceived norm can trigger bias, and refocus your attention on what is being said, not how it is being said.

This may present in a variety of ways, including:

Tone: Some candidates may have differences in cadence, volume, or even prefer written communication over verbal. Be patient and flexible and focus on the content of what is being communicated rather than the style of the communication.
Honesty/ Literal Communication: Candidates may be very honest. Please be prepared for transparent, unfiltered answers to questions. Some may also interpret language literally. Asking, 'How did you find your last job?' may result in an answer of 'I looked in a map’. A better question would be “How did you learn about this job opportunity? Was it through a friend or family member”.
Stimming: Some candidates may engage in repetitive movements, such as rocking back and forth. In general, some of these movements are part of a sensory-management strategy and are not necessarily indicative of any particular emotional state.
Interest/ Excitement: Some candidates may not express emotions in the same way that a neurotypical person does. They may not present neurotypical indicators of excitement or interest in the position, however this does not necessarily mean they are not interested or excited about a job opportunity.
Eye Contact: For some autistic people, focusing on making good eye-contact greatly detracts from their ability to process and communicate information. Eye contact is unlikely to be a critical skill needed to succeed in the role.
Special Interests: Some individuals have an area or two of strong interest that they are highly knowledgeable and passionate about. It may be hard for them to refrain from sharing what they know about their area of special interest.

Environmental Adjustments

Remember that an interview is also a chance for the candidate to assess their interest in your company. This means that making the interview accessible and accommodating can make or break your chance to bring in an exceptional candidate. Also, your interview will be most effective if you are getting the best out of each interviewee, and meeting sensory needs and preferences will help each candidate perform their best.

Follow these simple guidelines to ensure a basic level of environmental flexibility and accessibility. And remember from earlier, it is critical to offer these adjustments or else they will most likely not be utilized.

✔ Lighting

Ensure that the interview setting allows for adjustability of lighting, and ask the candidate if they would like the lighting adjusted before beginning. This may be achieved with dimmable lights or with a variety of lighting to choose from (overhead, desk lights, windows, etc).

✔ Distraction

Try to ensure that the interview setting is free from unnecessary distractions, even if done virtually. This includes creating a quiet environment, ensuring there is not excessive direct light, avoiding interruption during the interview, and/or eliminating or reducing the presence of open-space screens such as lobby televisions from the interview space.

✔ Movement

Many people feel physically or socially more comfortable when they can stand and/or move. If meeting in-person, choose a space that can accommodate a bit of standing/pacing room in addition to the seated area, and normalize that as an option if a candidate is more comfortable on their feet.

✔ Breaks

If you expect an interview, or sequence of interviews, to go longer than an hour, be sure to budget time for short breaks (at least 5 min per hour). People work in all kinds of different routines and may not be accustomed to prolonged meeting time or communication. This will ensure the candidate’s level of physical comfort as well as mental stability throughout the interview process.

Key Points

➊ Think of skill-based hiring in three tiers of implementation. The more you can implement, the more accessible, equitable, and effective your interviews will be.

➋ At minimum, tailor your interview questions to be as clear, concrete, and skill-based as possible, based directly on the requirements for the role.

❸ Seeing candidates' hands-on work, whether past or present, will be the most effective way of assessing their skills and aptitude for the position.

❹ Providing environmental accommodations helps candidates perform their best, yields the best interview data, and represents the values and inclusivity of the company.

To continue with further steps in the Skill-Based Hiring process, return to the Skill-Based Talent Management Guide