No More Interview Surprises

By Rick Dacri, Dacri & Associates LLC

If you want to make great hires, know what questions to ask during your employment interviews. We all know the standard questions: “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” and “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” However, 60 minutes of these types of questions won’t tell you much about an applicant. So what questions should you be asking so that you know what you’re getting when you say, “you’re hired.” What questions guarantee that you hire the right candidate every time?

Interviewing is getting so hard because applicants are trained on how to answer your interview questions. As a result, many managers are making bad hire decisions. Well-rehearsed job applicants often become poor performing new employees. The person you hire performs differently from the applicant you interviewed and you end up scratching your head wondering what happened.

No one can afford to make a bad hire. Underperforming employees impact your organization’s productivity, customer service, profitability and morale. Moreover, when you realize you made a mistake, it is nearly impossible to get rid of them. Employment laws tie your hands. Firing an employee today is always fraught with risk.

To avoid the high costs of making bad hires, you must ask the right questions during the interview. Asking vague questions to potential employees will often result in canned responses—a recipe for a disastrous hire. On top of that, there is also the difficulty of interpreting a candidate’s response to your question. Successful interviewers must be able to identify high performance candidates. That means they must know what questions to ask and how to probe beyond shallow answers. Finally, when evaluating a candidate’s response, interviewers must be able to spot those red flags warning you that there may be problems looming.

To improve your interview hit rate, move away from those tired, predictable questions and begin developing behavioral interview questions. These questions force an applicant to discuss specific past experiences. No theory or hypothetical situations wanted here, just responses about a real life occurrence. This will give you a clear picture of who this individual is, what he has done, and how he is likely to behave in the future. Remember, past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. Through behavioral questioning, you’ll get an applicant that is more spontaneous and forthright, since he cannot prepare in advance for these questions.

Let’s look at how it works. If you ask an applicant if he can work with customers, you’ll surely illicit a response like, “sure I can work with customers. I love customers.” This response won't inspire confidence. Now try asking, “Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult customer. How did you handle the situation and what happened?” The response to this query will quickly tell you whether you’re willing to put this person in front of your customers.

Asking a supervisory candidate whether they can manage people won’t give you a lot to work with but ask her to “describe a time when you had great difficulty managing a particular person. What happened overtime?” This question will generate a response that will tell you quickly whether you have a supervisor in front of you or an imposter.

Before your next interview, put in writing what your successful applicant should look like. Beyond the usual experience, education, and training requirements, include those critical traits, things like attention to detail, spontaneity, customer orientation, able to think on her feet, etc. Then develop behavioral questions that will force the candidate to identify whether they meet your profile or not. Ask these questions and then probe his responses. Do this and you’ll really get to know who you’re hiring.

You have limited time with an applicant. Making the right choice requires that you ask the right questions. Take the surprises out of the interview process and you’ll find that you’ll make better hires—every time.

Rick Dacri is a human resource consultant, featured speaker at regional and national conferences, and author of the book “Uncomplicating Management: Focus On Your Stars & Your Company Will Soar.” Since 1995 his firm, Dacri & Associates has helped organizations improve individual and organizational performance. Rick connects with people in a positive and challenging way to offer practical solutions. He can be reached at 207-967-0837, or via email at rick@dacri.com