Hiring the right team members is of paramount importance if you want your business to be successful. When trying to determine if a candidate is right for your business, asking the right questions can be critical to understanding their true character and whether or not they will fit in with the rest of the team. Here are some of the best questions to test if a candidate is right for your business.

“When have you ever failed to live up to expectations, and what did you do about it?

This is a great question to ask because it is less common to discuss failures during the interview process: most candidates focus on emphasising their strengths and talking about how their abilities fit the profile of the job that they are interviewing for. When you ask a question about failure, it allows you to see how the candidate views his or herself and whether or not they are able to take responsibility for failing to do something. Everyone makes mistakes or slips up from time to time: you should be looking for the interview candidate to answer this question in a way that shows they are capable of accepting their mistakes and learning from them in the future.

“What is your favourite movie and why?”

This is an unconventional interview question because it doesn’t seem like a relevant topic to an interview. However, a person’s taste in movies can actually reveal a tremendous amount of information about them. The question itself also shows you whether or not they are capable of thinking on their feet: it is doubtful that they expected to be asked this question, so they will have to come up with a movie as well as an explanation for why they like it in a relatively short period of time. A candidate that can think on their feet and quickly come up with good answers to challenging questions is one that has some valuable skills.

“How would you handle it if you didn’t get along with someone in the office?”

This is another outside the box interview question because it also focuses on negative personality traits. This question is important, however, because it helps you understand how your clients will handle situations that they may not be very comfortable in. Almost everyone at some time or another has dealt with people at work that they are not very fond of. Good employees understand how to deal with the situations in a non-hostile way that doesn’t cause tension. People with poor workplace social skills, on the other hand, may let the negative feelings fester and cause issues in the dynamic of your office workers.

“What do you think is your most misunderstood character trait?”

Self-awareness is a huge part of becoming an employee that can work successfully together with other people. Most people have an understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, both on a social as well as a professional level. They should know what most people will probably think of them and whether or not it is right: they will also know how to make sure that they put their best foot forward at work, despite what others may think about their abilities or the work that they have been doing.

“Do you have any issues or worries about coming to work for our specific organisation?”

It is quite normal for someone to have first-day jitters when they are beginning a new position, but this question allows you to get to the heart of the matter by finding out whether or not the candidate has any problem with the culture and ideology of your particular business. Even if your organisation is not a large or well-known one, your candidate should still be able to glean an understanding of what it would be like to work there. The level of honesty that they answer this question with will be a good determination of whether or not they will fit in. The best job candidates may bring up some small issues that they have, but they will also talk about how they will overcome them if they are hired. This shows whether or not your candidate will have the courage to be honest when it is necessary, which is a key trait in the workplace.

The challenge of interviewing is that it is very hard to get a true sense of what a person will be like when you interview them. Asking these interview questions will help you understand their true nature to give you the best chance of hiring the right candidates.

If your business requires support developing interview questions, speak to the HR Consulting team at Flexi Personnel.