With growing uncertainty surrounding household expenditure in the UK, three quarters of the UK workforce are reportedly looking to change jobs. On top of a pre-existing employment crisis, the statistic represents an extremely active jobs market – a challenging time for some, but a lucrative one for competitive businesses willing to pay for the right candidate.
As such, now is a better time than any to refine your interviewing process, right down to the questions themselves. The following are four must-ask questions for any future candidates.
What Skills and Strengths Will You Bring to the Position?
This question is a common one to find in interviews across businesses and industries, and for good reason. On the face of it, the question is an earnest way to learn more about a candidate, as an accompaniment to their CV and cover letter. But the syntax of the question has a hidden purpose. Rather than asking a candidate to prove their efficacy for a role, you are asking them to explain their suitability in their own terms – giving them the opportunity to display their appetite for the role, and to sell their skillset to you directly.
For What Reasons Are You Leaving Your Current Position?
Asking candidates to elucidate the reasons for their leaving can work two-fold. Firstly, it is a bread-and-butter question for discerning any issues with the candidate of which you may need to be aware. Secondly, it is an opportunity for the candidate to demonstrate growth in their profession, and to reveal any direct aims they may have for moving to your business. This information can be crucial for deciding whether or not to progress with a candidate, and in particular with regard to candidates with a gap in their CV, or leaving a position after a matter of months.
Tell Us Something Not On Your CV
You may have used executive search services to find the optimal candidates for a given position – an effective move, especially if the position is highly specialised. Outsourcing candidate search can result in a higher calibre of interviewee, but also means you have less interactions with candidates ahead of interview; as such, the interview itself becomes a key time to learn more about a given candidate’s demeanour and motivations.
Asking a candidate to tell you about something they haven’t included on their CV gives them an opportunity to expound on themselves, whether an unrelated hobby or skill about which they were proud, or future ambitions and routes to achieving them. In this way, you can meaningful intuit initiative and drive, as well as form a fuller picture of the candidate.
How Would Your Colleagues Describe You?
This is another question you can utilise to flesh out a more holistic understanding of a candidate. In asking them to evaluate their colleagues’ impression of them, you are yourself evaluating their self-awareness and aptitude for team collaboration. For leadership positions this question is of particular importance, as it can help you gain an understanding of their management style beyond pre-prepared talking points.
David Prior
David Prior is the editor of Today News, responsible for the overall editorial strategy. He is an NCTJ-qualified journalist with over 20 years’ experience, and is also editor of the award-winning hyperlocal news title Altrincham Today. His LinkedIn profile is here.
