You’ve filtered through resumes, made phone calls, and found a few applicants that could be the perfect fit for the job.  You know making a bad hiring decision will be costly, so how do you know which one to choose?  Asking the right interview questions will ensure you choose the right candidate.  Use these three components to asking the best interview questions: challenging questions, interpersonal questions, and questions that put the candidate on the spot.

1. Challenging Questions
   Good job candidates have done their research and can decode and hack interview questions, allowing them to respond with the perfect answers. Opinion based questions flood the internet and a candidate can easily come prepared with rehearsed answers.  Most candidates have answers to general questions about teamwork, initiate, and leadership already memorized.

   In order to really find out whether a candidate is qualified for the job, you should ask challenging questions that require facts, not opinions.  Ask questions about how the candidate has acted in previous situations and then keep digging.  Questions like “tell me about a time when a client was upset with you”, help evaluate the candidate’s skills and abilities to deal with conflict.  Dig deeper to find out why the customer was mad, what the interviewee did to handle the situation, and how the situation turned out.

2. Interpersonal Questions
   Questions about interpersonal skills allow you to assess information about a candidate’s workplace relationships. These questions ask the candidate to describe a situation and how they acted. For example:

• Tell me about a time when you’ve demonstrated the ability to work effectively with your coworkers.
• What are the three most important factors that make you a valued coworker in your current job? What would your supervisor say are the three most important factors?
• Tell me about a time when you worked with a friend or a coworker who became a friend. What did you do to ensure that the friendship had only positive results for your company?

A great candidate solves problems and conflicts with their peers.  They can demonstrate that they’ve built effective relationships with both supervisors and reporting staff.  Interpersonal questions also give insight into how the candidate works with other people.

3. Pressure Questions
   There are times in the work environment that you need an employee to work well under pressure, so it’s important to find out how a potential candidate deals with a hectic environment. There are a couple of ways to detect this during an interview.

• Ask questions that put the candidate on the spot.
  Companies like Google are known for asking outrageous interview questions that put the interviewee on the spot.  Whether they ask “How many pennies would it take to fill this conference room?” or “How long would it take to wash all the windows in New York City?” their goal isn’t to receive a right or wrong answer.  It’s to see how the candidate reacts to such an obnoxious question that they had no way to prepare for.
• Conduct a stress interview.
  A second way to determine how candidates act under pressure is by conducting a stress interview.  During stress interviews, the individual conducting the interview uses numerous strategies to make the interview difficult for the job candidate.  The interviewer will act hostile toward the candidate, appear uninterested, and ask uncomfortable questions to see how the interviewee reacts.

The best candidate will be the one that knows how to ace all of your interview tests, while remaining collected.  Ensure you’re finding the best employees for your open positions by letting the experienced recruiters at BOS Staffing  help with your hiring process.  Contact us today, and we’ll provide the customized staffing solutions for your organization.