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Do you have an interview for an open position coming up? As you’re preparing to fill the role with a strong candidate, you’re likely considering the questions you’ll ask and how you’ll structure the interview.
The best interview questions to ask a candidate go beyond “tell me about yourself,” and give you real information on an applicant’s personality, passion, creativity and initiative.
In this post, I’ll walk you through eight of the best interview questions to ask a candidate, and I’ll explain why these are good interview questions to ask employees. In the end, you’ll be ready to sift through your applicant pool and identify who will shine as the newest member of your organization.
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The interview questions you ask are pivotal in uncovering a candidate's skills, ensuring a good fit with company culture, and assessing their problem-solving abilities and motivation. These inquiries not only aid in selecting the most qualified and passionate candidates for the role but also play a crucial role in enhancing team dynamics and reducing turnover. Effective questioning ensures a fair, unbiased hiring process and sets the foundation for long-term success and employee retention within the organization.
With the importance of asking the right questions in mind, let's dive into the top eight interview questions that are instrumental in identifying the ideal candidates for your organization.
For many small businesses, growth is critical. One of the best ways to ensure your organization continues to take advantage of new opportunities is to hire future-focused candidates. Asking interviewees to forecast the future of the job or industry, identify trends and make predictions is a great way to measure the candidate’s passion for continued learning and improvement within the field.
This question allows your interviewee to step into their “future” shoes and ideate on how they would approach their job responsibilities. By asking a candidate to describe how they might identify potential inefficiencies, you give yourself a chance to assess their ability to think critically and problem-solve.
Pay attention to whether they describe the need to gather data from multiple sources, consult with team members, and seek to understand your company’s culture and methods.
This question presents a great alternative for the tired “What do you like about this industry?” or “Why do you want to work here?” questions. Asking candidates how they stay up to date in the field allows you to measure their actual commitment to and interest in their work.
While any candidate can say they have a passion for their job, a candidate who stays on top of industry news is typically one with active and genuine interests.
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Good interview questions to ask employees involve a mix of skills-based questions and questions that offer a window into who the candidate is as a person. Enquiring about what the candidate finds interesting or exciting about the role gives them a chance to show their passion—and lets you know how you might be able to put their experiences and talents to their best use.
Your candidate may be coming from a role in which they had lots of autonomy to innovate, or they be job searching in part because they weren’t given room to cultivate their ideas. This question provides space for a candidate to either explain the impact of an idea or if they didn’t get to implement their ideas, what they would have done if given the chance.
Answers to this question can provide strong insight into an applicant’s creativity, initiative and tendance toward leadership.
Enquiring into an applicant’s preferred communication or collaboration style is one of many good interview questions to ask to determine whether they’ll be able to make a seamless transition into your organization’s culture. While an answer that shows a preference different from the candidate’s potential manager shouldn’t necessarily be a deal breaker in their candidacy, it can be a forecasting tool to determine if they’ll need extra training to fully integrate with your team.
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Your candidate’s resume will tell you a lot about what they’ve done in previous roles, but it won’t necessarily relay where their passions are or where they’ve shined. Asking about the joys of an applicant’s prior position allows them to expand upon the skills they’ve picked up in the past and elaborate on how they may be transferrable to your organization.
Before you wrap up your interview, it’s important to ask candidates if they have questions of their own. An interview is a chance for both parties to determine if the employment relationship will be a good fit long-term.
The answers you provide to the candidate’s questions allow you to showcase the most attractive aspects of the role, your company, and its culture.
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Are you looking to hire and onboard new talent? When you partner with Axcet HR Solutions, you’ll gain access to all of the tools that you need to help locate, interview, and hire valuable candidates.
With Axcet, you’ll be able to tap into our state-of-the-art applicant tracking system. You’ll also have access to our experienced HR experts’ ability to craft strong and compliant job descriptions, tailor recruiting strategies to your organization, and develop sustainable retention initiatives.
Recruitment and retention are just the beginning of what we bring to the table at Axcet. To learn more, schedule a consultation with our HR experts.
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