There are hundreds of articles written to help jobseekers improve their interview techniques. There are far fewer that address the damage a poor technique on the part of the interviewer can have on a company and its reputation.

T Mobile receives approximately 100,000 applications for employment nationwide each year, of which about 5,000 make it to the interview stage. The company employed an outside firm, Ipos Mori, to ask 2,000 of those people for their post interview opinions. The results were not quite what T Mobile wanted to hear.

The survey found that a full third of those questioned left the interview room with a poor impression of the company. They cited rudeness, unprepared or late interviewers and, sexist or racist questions as some of the top reasons they formed a negative opinion.

The lessons of this survey are numerous. Aside from the fact that the company potentially loses a valuable employee and has wasted both time and money on the interview process, there are also larger ramifications which can be applied to any firm, large or small.

Of the third who reported a negative interview experience half said they would never purchase goods or services from the company again, and almost every one of them said that they were likely to share the story of their experience with at least 3 – 5 other people. That is a lot of lost business and negative word of mouth marketing right there.

You can avoid making such mistakes in your own company by ensuring that all your hiring personnel, even those that have been doing it for years, are up to date on current interview techniques, especially about what lines of questioning could be misconstrued as offensive or even illegal. It may be money very well spent for your company to engage the services of a recruitment specialist to come to your location and conduct a class or seminar on the development of great interview techniques.