Congratulations, your business is expanding and you have decided that the time is right to hire a new member of staff. A permanent, contract or temporary member of staff. Or a VA.
But how do you know which candidate is best, or what to ask so that you find the best candidate?
You may have placed an ad online or with an agency and now looking at many applicants CVs and wondering where to start!
I can help you! I have successfully recruited hundreds of staff over 15 years working in the Recruitment Industry, 10 years running my own business, Amber Associates Recruitment Ltd in London. We always aim for a perfect match.
I also work as a business coach with my business AmberLife and am a Licensed Master Practitioner of NLP. Combining my 20 yrs+ successful entrepreneurial business experience and NLP together, a powerful formula to help you now. I work with Solopreneurs and Small Business Owners, to empower you and grow your business. I am passionate in helping you to succeed, am results driven, client focussed and here to help you and your business.
These are my proven interview questions to help you maximise the interview process and save you time and money by interviewing to hire the best person that fits your vacancy and business culture, not interviewing to fire in a couple of weeks because you didn’t know what questions to ask!!!!
Firstly, it’s your job to make a good impression too! Candidates choose who they want to work for as well as clients choosing candidates. What do you want them to think about you? Remember you will be their boss soon! Let’s get prepared!
What skills are necessary to do the job well? This helps you to identify and Match the candidates’ skills, experience and personality to your vacancy and organisation. Read through the Job Description again before the interview and prepare.
Ask yourself or the line manager
i) What are the most important aspects of this particular job?
ii) What’s the most important thing about the vision of the role?
iii) What would set the ideal candidate apart from the others. Who will stand out and why?
- Define the long term career prospects for the successful candidate. People want to know how they can grow and develop into the role too.
What does their CV say about them? Read through the CV – this is one of the biggest bug bears of candidates if they feel that the interviewer hasn’t read their CV. It’s not enough to glance over it 5 minutes before the candidate arrives.
Highlight areas to discuss (using a highlighter pen is great, the candidate will appreciate that you have taken the time to read their CV and be more engaged)
Highlight areas for further discussion and clarity in the
i) career history, ii) education and iii) achievements to date, etc.
Where will you conduct the interview? Prepare the room – ensure the room is clean and tidy. Choose somewhere private where you won’t be disturbed. Hire a meeting room if necessary. It’s preferable to Starbucks, as this really isn’t a private place and the candidate may not want to discuss their lives whilst others around them listen!
Meet and greet the candidate – tell the receptionist who to expect and ensure they welcome the candidates, with a smile!
Prepare yourself – make sure you are there on time too! Give yourself at least 15 minutes before the candidate is due. Check your own presentation. Check the room. Check you have the Job Description and CV. And a pen and paper.
Offer a glass of water or a cup of tea on arrival. Preferably not coffee, it accentuates people’s nerves!!
Starting off the interview
It’s good to start the interview with you giving a brief overview of the company and the job vacancy. This gives the candidate time to settle and listen to how you describe the role.
Then ask a question that is relatively easy so that it helps the candidate to relax. This way you are helping them and they will respond better throughout the process. You want to have a good interview and for it to be a good exchange of information, so you get the real person shining through.
Generally everyone has interview nerves at first. If the candidate is relaxed, they will be more honest and open with their answers. You will get a better response.
1. What major strengths do you have to offer that’s fitting to this particular role? Classic starter for 10!!
This will immediately highlight their confidence and abilities.
Select one of the main responsibilities of the role and ask if they already have experience in this. OR are you willing to train them. Something for you to consider.
2. Where has the candidate experience of what you are looking for?
Hopefully they will be able to ”smoothly” explain. For example, if it’s diary management, what systems did they use, Outlook? Did they support one or two Directors/Managers?
3. What do you think will be the most challenging part of the job?
The word challenging means different things to different people. For some this is something that is very hard to grasp expertise in. Others think that it’s something that is motivating. It may be they have to learn something new. If they are stuck, ask them what they had to learn when they started in their last role. Who did they ask for help? What research did they do?
4. What attracted you to this job? “Why do you want to work for us”?
You are looking for candidates that are interested in working with you, specifically. With the internet being readily available there is no reason at all why they can’t have researched your organisation before the interview.
5. Find out more about how they work, make this specific to your role. What are your main requirements.
a) Where you have used your own initiative at work? Please give me an example.
b) What’s a typical timeframe that you need to update yourself on new procedures?
c) How do you organise and prioritise your workload?
d) Tell me about a time when you solved a problem in your last role?
e) Where have you saved the department or company any money before?
f) What’s your best achievement to date and how did you accomplish this?
6. And then what happened? Probe a little deeper to clarify how they perform. Are they an average performer, under average or above average?
Questions like these will help you identify this…
EG. Thanks, you say that you did XYZ, then what happened?
How did others react?
What did the customer say?
How did the team react?
What did your manager say?
What impact did this have?
What would you do differently if in the same situation?
7. How do you work in a team?
8. How do you like to be managed? Good to know if they like being or need micro managing, are they self motivated, do they need daily and weekly deadlines? Good to know now, does it match your style of management?
9. What are your short term and long term goals?
– Current career and personal goals,
What goals have they set and achieved in the past? At work and in their personal life. Hire people that take action, who achieve and who stick to their commitments.
10. What have colleagues and/or your managers said about you in the past? If they have a reference with them, great. You can always ask them to provide details of a referee.
11. Why do you think you are suited to this role? – Check if they include the skill set you are looking for, relevant experience, are they showing any passion for the role, their interest in your industry sector etc.
12. What would your colleagues say about you?
13. What would your manager say about you?
14. How do you describe yourself?
15. Ask the candidate, “Why do you want this Job?”
16. Is there anything else that you would like to know?
17. Check where they live so that you can assess how long it will take to commute to you, every day!
18. What was their last salary? What salary are they looking for now?
19. When can they start?
20. When are you available for a 2nd interview? If necessary, check their availability. You can also ask what other interviews they have attended. This gives you more insights as to their career focus. Is the role similar to yours, in the same industry? or completely different!! Are they voicing keen interest in your role? Knowing where they are in their process of finding a new job will help you assess their match to yours. You want someone who is very keen to do your job and work with you in your company 🙂
Just ask two or three candidates back for a 2nd interview.
This may seem like alot of questions, but as you practise them and become more used to asking candidates these questions, your confidence will grow and you’ll start to identify the better perfomers, the better candidates that best match your needs.
I advise you to interview the applicants close together, so that you can easily remember who is who and you will be able to notice who stands out amongst the crowd.
Top tip – It’s all about their Attitude – if they have a can-do attitude, happy to learn new things, have good manners and you have a good feeling about them, they will be great employees.
If you’d like more information about how I can help look after your staff and unleash more of their potential, take a look at AmberLife Staff Coaching
Call if you need me, I am here to help you and grow your business.
Jo James
Business Coach, Master Practitioner of NLP
AmberLife UK Ltd
Revitalise how you think, feel, work and live
T: 020 8336 0886 M: 07968 016585
Follow me on Twitter: @JoJamesAmber
Find me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/AmberLifeMindSpa
W: http://czz.752.mywebsitetransfer.com
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