So you’re looking to hire a new gal/guy for an open position and, of course, you want the best candidate fit. Honestly, how do you determine who’s the best? In an interview, it’s likely candidates are just telling you what you want to hear.
A recent CareerBuilder survey found 56% of hiring managers have caught job candidates lying on their resumes. Separating the great candidates from the good ones is half the challenge when it comes to hiring. We’ve put together 5 questions that will surely help you get through the journey with a little more ease.
1. “Have you been promoted at least once in your previous role?”
Well, this one you may not have to physically ask since 92% of companies are looking to social media for the hiring process and you may just be able to find out by looking into their LinkedIn. When looking for the best person for the role, those who are promoted on a regular basis generally are great at what they do and take on more and more responsibility as they adapt in an organization. If they haven’t been promoted, it could be beneficial to ask about any challenging roles they’ve taken on and what made them such a challenge for the candidate.
If they say no, probe a little further to find out if it was a flat organization or a situation based on something other than performance.
2. “What did you learn in your previous role? What do you hope to continue to learn more about in the future?”
The candidates who value continual learning and are committed to it will likely add the most value to your organization. Use these questions to really dig into your candidate’s willingness to learn and commit to being the best as well as staying the best.
If they have difficulty coming up with anything they learned, you might have a dud. If it continues to happen during the interview process, consider letting new applicants know it’s a question you’ll ask. Often, entry-level candidates feel their answers might be too basic to use.
3. “What is the most challenging project you’ve led in a previous role and how did you handle it?”
Learning about the responsibilities your candidate has previously taken on is a must. This will give your candidate the opportunity to delve into what they can do while allowing you the opportunity to dissect their answers for cues that may be fitting with the role for which they’re interviewing. Some of the best employees continuously enjoy taking on new responsibilities, so if previous managers felt comfortable trusting the job candidate with difficult projects, that’s a good sign! Listen for transferable skills like adapting to a new role, working with a difficult coworker or client or having to overcome a shrinking budget or tight timelines.
4. “What can you tell me about the company and any things you might change about it?”
Here’s the one that may do the best at weeding out your good candidates from your great ones. Candidates with the most drive will likely be researching and learning about your company from the second they see your job ad. And we’re not talking about repeating the company history story posted on the website.
Candidates who can answer these questions understand your current strategy, what’s going well and possibly where you should go from here. 85% of respondents from a recent study said they aren’t sure what their company is trying to achieve. You can combat this scary statistic by starting off with hires that truly get where you’re going.
5. “Do you have any questions for me?”
To have a great interview with a candidate, it shouldn’t be a one-way street. It should feel like a conversation with questions from the job seeker that allows you to discuss the company’s approach to projects and deadlines, values and mission and team culture. You can rate the quality and quantity of questions from this portion of the interview and make sure they’re asking about things that should be important to someone on your team. For example, who would they be reporting to and where you, as a leader, want to take the company moving forward.
Once you snag that candidate you longingly sought after, don’t stop there! Be sure to keep your quality hire on the team for the long haul with some great onboarding practices to make sure they know you mean business. Click Boarding is a leader in onboarding software. It’s not one thing we do, it’s ALL we do. Make your employee’s first day, their best first day ever.
