Finding the right employees is critical to building a successful business. A good human resources team can help, but attracting skilled and exceptional talent also involves the right strategies.
The interview stage is especially crucial. Someone’s CV can tell you a lot of things, but there’s no substitute for face-to-face or virtual interviews when it comes to gauging a candidate’s communication skills, among other things.
Provided you ask the right questions, that is. So, instead of asking the most common and unnecessarily stressful questions everyone is tired of hearing, why not try the following for a change?
“What inspired you to apply here?”
As an employer, it’s natural to be curious about what motivates an applicant. But you can hardly ask them that outright and get a good answer.
Also, most applicants are likely to look up your company prior to the interview. Thus. they probably already have a canned response for questions like, “Do you know what we do here?”
If you really want to probe deeper, try reframing your question. Try asking, “What inspired you to apply here?” Or even “What is it about our mission that resonates with you?”
These questions aren’t just better at establishing rapport. They also help you gauge how well your candidates understand your company’s goals and, more importantly, how these values reflect their own.
“Describe the best working relationship you’ve ever had.”
Background checks are an indispensable part of the hiring process. Of course, you’d want to know more about each applicant’s background, not to mention verify their credentials.
However, it’s not very wise to ask them questions like, “How would your previous boss describe you?” Aside from the fact that they’re not mind readers, this can also be a sensitive topic for employees coming from a toxic workplace or who have had a negative relationship with their previous manager.
A better way to phrase things is to focus on the positives. So, you can try something like, “What was the best working relationship you’ve had and why did it work so well?”
This encourages the applicants to open up more, thus cluing you in on their values and whether or not they would be a good fit for your company.
“What are you looking for in your next manager?”
Employees leave jobs for various reasons. At the moment, their reasons for leaving are most likely related to the pandemic. Chances are, they were let go of or they’re looking for a more flexible setup, hence them applying for remote work.
Asking someone about what they’re looking for in their next manager, team, or role gives you a better insight into the direction they want to go (or the lack thereof).
If the manager they described sounds like you or whoever you have lined up to be their immediate supervisor, then you’re onto something. Otherwise, you can save time and move on to the next applicant.
Here’s a takeaway: A good interview should feel like a dialogue, not an interrogation. This has a lot to do with how you frame your questions. Remember, you can only get the right answers if you ask the right questions.
Now that you know what questions to ask, the next question would be, how do you get started?
Fortunately, Remote Staff has been helping Australian businesses and entrepreneurs like you find and retain the best remote Filipino talent since 2007. On top of that, we also help with the onboarding process so you can focus on other, more important matters.
Call us today or schedule a call back and let’s get started.
Serena has been working remotely and writing content for the better part of the last decade. To date, she's written for Pepper.ph and Mabuhay Magazine, among others, and has churned out more than a thousand articles on everything from The Basics of Stock Market Investing to How to Make Milk Tea-Flavored Taho at home. Hermits, aspiring hermits, and non-hermits with interesting project propositions may email her at serena.estrella10@gmail.com.
