For anyone who sits on the other side of an interview or audition panel.
Most of us have sat on both sides of the table. We know the relief of an interview that feels like an engaging, curious conversation, and we remember the ones that felt cold, opaque, or downright bruising.
When you sit on a panel, it’s easy to forget how much power you bring into the room. You hold someone’s livelihood, career trajectory, or artistic ambitions in your hands. That dynamic alone makes the room intensely pressurised, before anyone has even asked a question. When a candidate falters, freezes, or walks away feeling shaken, it is probably not because they lacked ability. In some cases, the setup simply tipped their nervous system into threat mode.
If we want to see what people can actually do, it is worth looking honestly at a few habits that might creep into recruitment and audition processes almost by default:
Is the process penalising people with caring responsibilities, health conditions, or demanding jobs by asking for many hours of unpaid work (either through preparing complex tasks or attending multiple/full day sessions)?
Does anyone on the panel catch themselves reading a candidate’s questions about adjustments, culture, or workload boundaries as a warning that they might be ‘difficult’?
Are we running certain tasks because they actually predict performance, or just because ‘that is how we’ve always done it’?
Do candidates really need to be auditioned and given feedback in front of the entire pool of hopefuls?
We don’t need to engineer additional stress on top of what may already be a nerve-wracking experience.
A good interview outcome is co-created. Candidates have to do their own preparation, of course, but the panel sets the weather in the room. When someone feels safe and grounded, their brain can access the nuance, problem-solving, and warmth they would bring to the job itself. When an assessment environment feels intimidating, we end up measuring how well someone copes with acute adrenaline, not how good they are at the role.
Here are six practical ways panels can create conditions where candidates can actually show what they can do.
1. Be warm and welcoming
An authentic effort to connect and show someone they are welcome changes the feeling in the room straight away. Our nervous systems are constantly scanning for cues of safety or dismissal. Most candidates are acutely attuned to whether a panel seems receptive, distracted, or in a rush to get through the day.
That is worth remembering when planning the schedule. An exhausted, back-to-back panel will unintentionally chill the room. Simple human cues matter: an open posture, a calm greeting, and steady, gentle eye contact can help an overwhelmed person settle. (With the caveat that direct, prolonged eye contact can feel intense or dysregulating for some neurodivergent candidates - best to stay responsive and take your cue from them).
2. Manage expectations
Uncertainty is an adrenaline amplifier. Where you can, give candidates a clear picture of what to expect well before they arrive: outline the format, timings, who is in the room, perhaps the layout of the space.
Setting this out early also creates an unforced opportunity to ask about reasonable adjustments. Knowing the structure in advance gives people a steady foundation to stand on. It does not compromise your ability to see how someone thinks on their feet, but it removes the guesswork that might get in the way of their thinking.
The same transparency goes for what happens afterwards. If decision-making is going to take three weeks, or if your team simply does not have the capacity to offer individual feedback, say so openly. Managing expectations is kinder than silence.
3. Interrogate your unconscious bias
Most of us can think of interviews where an assessor’s bias showed through in an unguarded question, an eyebrow raise, or a snap judgement based on age, gender expression, neurotype, disability, race, accent, or background.
It often shows up in polite shorthand: ‘the chemistry wasn’t quite there’, ‘not sure they’re the right culture fit’, or ‘they didn’t quite fit our vision’. Our instincts are worth paying attention to, but being in a position of power means taking the time to unpack what is sitting underneath that gut reaction.
Widening our imagination around how capability looks and sounds in a role is good for the whole organisation. Taking a proper look at what we are assuming about someone, and why, helps us make fair, grounded decisions. And speaking as someone who ticks a few ‘protected characteristic’ boxes on monitoring forms, I can tell you: when those biases are active in the room, candidates are likely to be aware of them.
4. Provide a safe container
You might not have much control over the physical room you are handed. Ideally, an assessment space is comfortable, quiet, reasonably tidy, and large enough to feel spacious without feeling like an aircraft hangar.
If you are stuck with thin walls, roadworks outside, or a freezing room, think about what you can do to cushion it. Can you rearrange the chairs so people aren’t shouting across an enormous boardroom table? Can you name the distraction out loud? Simply saying, ‘Sorry about the drilling next door, take your time,’ lets the candidate settle into the reality of the space instead of burning energy pretending everything is serene.
Thinking through sensory load and accessibility ahead of time is the baseline, rather than an indulgence.
5. Be patient with a wobble
Skilled assessors know how to put people at ease. When a candidate stumbles, giving them ten seconds to take a breath and collect their thoughts or start again often transforms the rest of the interview.
Even the most accomplished people can freeze under evaluation. That sudden brain fog does not mean they cannot do the job; it means their nervous system has momentarily perceived a threat and triggered a fight, flight, or freeze response. Meeting that moment with patience and a calm presence rather than a blank stare helps their system re-regulate. This can help to ensure that you actually get to see the person you invited into the room.
6. Let go of survivor’s bias
In many sectors and creative disciplines, high-stress or punitive traditions linger because ‘we all went through it’ and ‘it builds character’.
That is survivor’s bias talking: the idea that because we survived a gruelling, opaque initiation, the process must have had merit. But putting candidates through arbitrary hoops does not filter for talent. It filters for stamina, privilege, and the capacity to absorb stress without showing it (at least in the short term).
Every task and question in your recruitment should have a clear, demonstrable link to what the role actually requires. If something is only there because someone required it of you twenty years ago, it’s time to drop it.
Perhaps these points feel like common sense. But as you read them, you might also notice a slight edge of defensiveness: a flicker of irritation at the accommodations early-career candidates now ask for, or a lingering sting that nobody offered these courtesies when you were coming up.
It is worth sitting with whatever that brings up. That reaction is not something to hide; it is useful reflection. It shows us where our sectors have confused resilience with putting up with poor practice, and where we might be carrying old grief about what we had to endure to get here. Giving the next person a fairer, more humane experience does not diminish what you achieved. This is how we build better workplaces.
Training & facilitation for panels and leadership teams
I help organisations, boards, and interview panels across the public, cultural, and third sectors to build assessment processes that reflect real capability rather than performance under artificial pressure. I offer bespoke training, process audits, and facilitation to help teams navigate power dynamics, unpack bias, and co-create psychological safety in high-stakes recruitment.
Enquire about training and workshops | Explore my facilitation work and Kindling Space
Companion post: Performance Anxiety Part 1: How to shine in performance and presentation – for candidates and performers.