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Hiring people can be very hard, and hiring the wrong person can be disastrous.

What kind of questions should I ask to make sure I’m hiring the right people?

Don’t worry, we’ll show you the 3 types of questions that will help you recognize the right people for your company.

What Kind of Person Do You Need?

This is the first step of the process, and unfortunately, it’s one that I can’t help you with. You, along with your team, need to establish what kind of person you need for that specific position. You need to drill down the qualities and personality traits you’re looking for.

Knowing what kind of person you are looking for will tell you what kind of answers you should be looking for. By shaping your questions around the answers you are looking for, you’ll be able to form more effective questions. Of course, you don’t’ want to ask questions that have obvious answers, but by shaping your questions around specific answers, you’ll be able to find the information you need to know.

Different Types of Questions

One of the most important parts of interview questions is not asking closed-ended questions. Here are a few examples of a closed-ended question: “Are you organized?”, “Are you a hard worker?”, “Do you work well in a team?”. These questions have one-word answers, and this is what you do not want when talking to a person you are thinking about hiring.

When talking with someone you are thinking about hiring, the goal should be to get them talking as much as possible, you want to get as much relevant information out of them as you can.

Here is what those closed-ended question would look like in a better format: “Explain how you stay organized…”, “Please give me an example of something you put a lot of hard work into…”, “Please tell me about an experience when you had to work as a team and how you handled it…”. As you can see, these revised questions will promote a lot more dialogue from the person you are interviewing.

Best Types of Questions to Help You Hire

In today’s business world, there are so many different types of business and companies, making it impossible to nail down what the most important qualities for a new hire are. Although the specifics may vary, there are a few universal types of questions that will help you improve your hiring results today.

  1. Questions that require some sort of personal story or experience. One of the primary goals of an interview is to get to know the interviewee as much as possible, so naturally, you would want to find out the most about them within the shortest amount of time. By asking questions that require some backstory, you are enabling them to pour out personal information that will help you get to know them better.

Here is an example of this kind of question: “Tell me about a time you had to lead some kind of team.” As you can see, this question would require the interviewee to share more information about their past.

  1. Questions involving specific, hypothetical problem-solving scenarios. The ability to independently solve problems is one of the most important qualities in a new hire. Instead of asking a broad question such as, “how do you go about solving a problem?”, try asking something more creative.

In an interview for a digital marketing job, a friend of mine was given the following problem; “Using only your phone, find out what ASO is and how we could provide it as a service for clients.” This kind of question lets you see what the interviewee’s problem-solving skills in real time.

  1. Questions that give you an insight into how they are at a personal level. I’m sure we’ve all had to deal with difficult co-workers, and nobody likes doing it. That’s why it’s important to ask personal questions. Although it may seem a bit uncomfortable, it will help you get to know them better.

A good example of this type of question is the following; “Give me an example of an argument you got in with a family member/partner and how you were able to get past it.” Although it may be a bit uncomfortable, this kind of question will help you understand the person you’re interviewing a lot better.

 

There are many effective interviewing methods and different types of questions you can ask, but I have found these three types of questions extremely useful in picking out the cream of the crop. By using these types of questions and putting your own personal spin on them, you will quickly improve the quality of your interviews and hires.

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Annabelle Smyth

Annabelle Smyth is a freelance writer located in Salt Lake City, Utah. She enjoys writing about leadership, HR, and employee engagement. She has most recently worked with CMOE</a, writing about business leadership best practices. When not writing and educating herself, you can find her hiking the canyons with her dog and friends.

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