If you need to conduct an interview for a potential new member of staff remotely, look no further than Microsoft Teams, our in-house and purpose-built software for our remote business needs. This article will provide you with the instructions you need to set up a Teams meeting and provide your applicant with some simple instructions on how to not only join the meeting but also perform more advanced options such as share their screen and provide a presentation to the interviewers in the meeting.



Creating the Meeting


  • Open Outlook in Office 365
    • Optionally you can use the full 2016 client which works in a similar way
  • Click the Calendar

       

  • Click New Event

       

  • Add a Title (Subject Line)
  • Enter the external email address of the inductee
  • Enter all the usual details for the induction email invitation
    • A Join Meeting link should be automatically attached to the email
  • Click Add Online Meeting
  • Click Teams Meeting
  • Attach the Teams Interview Guide document included in this article

    • You can mention in the email that it will assist them if they have something to demonstrate or share

  • Send the email


        



Applicant Email


The applicant should receive an email that looks something like the below. You can see they have the option to add this to their calendar, depending on the email provider. They should also have the message as part of the email with the "Click here to join meeting" option. Once they click on the meeting, they will be placed into a virtual lobby where they will have to wait for you to start the meeting.


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Starting the Meeting


When you're ready to join the meeting on the day, it's just like any other internal meeting you would hold.


  • Open Microsoft Teams (App or Web)
  • Click the Calendar
  • Click the Interview
  • Click Join
  • Enable your Camera and Mic
    • Optionally, select a background or blur your backdrop

                   

  • Click Join Now


It may be worth doing a test meeting with a colleague prior to going into the interview just to make sure that everything is working OK on your end. You wouldn't want to join the interview and have the applicant unable to see or speak with you. Should you experience any issues, please refer to the ICT Training Site. Alternatively, you can raise a call via the ICT Portal and one of the ICT advisors will be happy to assist.



Admit Applicants to Lobby


Once you've joined the meeting, assuming the applicant is early for their Interview as I'm sure we all were, you should receive a popup notification from Teams as shown below to allow the applicant into the meeting when you're ready. They will be informed that they are waiting in the Lobby.



If you don't see the below, you can check the participant's panel in Teams for pending join requests.



That should now be it. Assuming both parties and any other members of staff joining the meeting are set up correctly, your interview should be ready to take place just like a normal Teams meeting. The documentation attached to this article which you send out to the applicant should cover how to provide a presentation via screen share. It may also be worth taking a look at yourself if you're unsure about setting up presentations for the applicant to see.


Should you experience any issues or find this article is lacking in some way, please get in touch with us via the ICT Portal.