Hiring The Best

Interviewing Questions

By Steve McClatchy, President
Alleer Training & Consulting

Hiring the right person for the right position can be critical to an organizations success. Asking effective questions during the interviewing process can be the single biggest difference between success and disaster. When you look at the complete cost of hiring the wrong person it can make you procrastinate hiring anyone at all. There is no magical one question that will tell you whether someone is the right or wrong candidate for a position but there are some questions that are better than others and can significantly reduce your risk.

Here are some great questions to ask the next time you are interviewing someone. All of these questions can help you learn more about a candidate and help you determine the probability of them succeeding in a in a given role.  These questions cover the areas of suitability, employability, capability, compatibility, credibility & affordability.

Suitability -- "Tell me about yourself?" "So what brings you to our company?" These questions are designed to see to what degree the candidate can see the big picture.  Is it their intent to help your business, continue on a career path or just get a job?  Do they understand the big picture of business, industries, and trends?  Do they understand they are only as valuable as the issues they resolve for your company?  Can they talk about their talents and skills from a high level?  Do they diagnose before they prescribe?  How long do they speak about themselves before they ask questions about the position and the ideal candidate?  Suitability questions help you to see why they are in front of you and if from a high level there is a reason for the interview to continue.

Employability -- "Why are you leaving your current employer?"  Employability questions surround the candidate’s value in the market and the need for their skills, talents and abilities.  Are they a diamond in the rough or a "meets expectations?" Why are there so many jobs on their resume?  Why so long with one employer?  Why do they want to work for a small/large company?  How has their performance been through the ebbs and flows of business?  Ask for specific examples of their communication, leadership and interpersonal skills?

Capability -- These are your strengths and weakness questions.  What are their greatest achievements?  If they could do anything in their career differently, what would it be? These are your resume competence questions. Latest skill developed? Biggest asset?  Training received?  Most developed skill?  What would they be the "go to" person for?

Compatibility -- Compatibility questions include "where do you want to be 5 years from now?" "What’s most important to you about your next position?" What are your references going to say about you?  What would your colleagues say are your greatest assets/liabilities?  Why this industry?  Why this position?  Why us?  Why now?  How would you handle a boss you didn’t like?  How well do you work alone or in a team environment?  How would you go about laying off a group of people that worked for you?  In this area you want to make sure they are compatible with the skills and experience needed as well as with the values and culture of the company.

Credibility -- Who are your references?  Why have you chosen them?  How long have you known them?  Here you are looking for honesty and integrity.  Ask for a time when they were 100% wrong about something and what they did about it?  Ask for a time when they lost a client and how they handled it?  Biggest success/failure and what made it successful/fail?  Although this is very hard to do we ultimately in the credibility area are looking to see if they are who they say they are.

Affordability -- Money does matter so ask them where they would like to be?  What are their money objectives for the next 5 years? Where would they like to be now? What is their income history?

Here are some other great interviewing questions that will help you find the right match.

How does this job match with their values?
What would make this the absolute ideal job for them?
What is the hardest thing they’ve ever had to do in their job?
What have they learned not to do in business? How did they learn that?
Do they consider themselves to be self-motivated? Examples? Have they ever been burned out? Ask them to explain? How did they get reenergized?
Do they feel attitude can be taught? How much do they feel it can be influenced? Do they believe leaders are born or made?
What was the culture like at their last company? Did that differ from the culture of their team? How did they feel about that? How important do they feel culture is?
What should an organization do with someone who is an outstanding performer but not a good cultural match? Vice versa.
Ask them to describe their personality?
How do they ultimately want to be remembered in business?

We have all been on interviews and its not a time where most people, even though it should be, are at their best.  If you have any concerns about hiring a candidate give them a chance to address it.  If you guess and you were wrong you have wasted everyone’s time and potentially the right candidate.  They have invested their time; energy and probably some paid time off to be in front of you.  The least you can do is be straightforward with them.

Changing jobs is a significant event in all of our lives and interviewing can be one game after another.  My advice is don’t ask trick questions or play games with your candidates.  Each question you ask should be directed at finding the right candidate for the position and nothing more.  The more direct, honest and open you are the more direct, honest and open your candidates will be and the greater your chances of hiring the best.

 Steve McClatchy is the president of Alleer Training & Consulting a provider of training, consulting and speaking services in the areas of Consultative Selling, Time Management and Leadership.  If you would like to publish this article in your trade journal, magazine or newspaper or if you would like to learn more about the ways Alleer can be a resource to your organization email Steve.McClatchy@Alleer.com or call 1-800-860-1171.