12 Interview Questions to Help You Find the Perfect Candidate
Out of the many responsibilities of a company’s human resources management, finding suitable employees to staff a growing small business comes with a special set of challenges.
The employee selection process takes time and effort, between attracting qualified candidates through job postings, wading through stacks of submitted resumes, and keeping applicants engaged throughout a hiring process that can take up to 23 days.[1] If all that wasn’t enough, the interview itself is perhaps the most crucial part of the employee selection process.
Even after vetting a seemingly perfect resume, the task truly lies in asking the right interview questions to be able to determine if someone can not only do the job at hand, but also be a great culture fit for the small business. Boilerplate interview questions simply won’t cut it, because it’s easy for candidates to research “the most commonly asked interview questions” in order to prepare. So in asking predictable questions, hiring managers may be met with an overly-rehearsed spiel that doesn’t reveal a candidate’s true nature.
By asking creative interview questions that are unexpected yet relevant to the role, hiring managers will likely be met with more authentic answers, as candidates will be forced to come up with something on the spot. While it’s not a bad idea to open an interview with a classic question such as “tell me about yourself,” other questions that dig a little deeper can help hiring managers get a better sense of who a candidate is.
A poor hiring decision can be more than just bad for business. Not only does it take time and money to fill a role, but one study also shows that 95% of hiring managers agree that hiring the wrong person can at least somewhat negatively impact the morale of the whole team.[2] Other costs include time spent managing poorly performing employees and lessened productivity due to mediocre hires.
See the infographic below for creative interview questions to help you find the best employees for your small business.
Infographic Sources:
MRINetwork | Undercover Recruiter | Hundred5 | Vitamin T | Fast Company | Fairygodboss | Coburg Banks | Inc. | EBI | ERE Media | Jibe
Article Sources:
- FastCompany.com. “Why the Hiring Process Takes Longer Than Ever“
- SHRM.org. “Morale, Productivity Suffer from Bad Hires“
Meredith Wood
Meredith Wood is the founding editor of the Fundera Ledger and a GM at NerdWallet.
Meredith launched the Fundera Ledger in 2014. She has specialized in financial advice for small business owners for almost a decade. Meredith is frequently sought out for her expertise in small business lending and financial management.