Are You Asking The Right Questions?

Attracting, retaining and re-attracting the right people for your workplace costs infinite dollars and endless hours. By changing up your interview questions you can start to discover what someone really thinks and how they might really behave.

Impression management is the term we use to describe putting our ‘best self’ forward – smiling amicably, laughing at others’ ridiculous jokes and agreeing with suboptimal decisions just to ‘get along’ and be liked.

There is no greater example of this than the interview process as potential new recruits all put their best selves forward in this situation.

Candidates answer questions based on what they think the employer would like to hear and provide an amazing ‘highlights reel’ of themselves in a very sanitised version.

So, what if you were armed with a list of questions which ensured candidates gave true insights into their preferred style of working?

At Shiift, we love our go-to list of behavioural questions which ends up providing us with real-time information.

Here’s just a few to consider:

• Describe what chaos looks like to you? (insight into reactive or structured environment preference)

• In three words how would others describe you when you're stressed? (ability to self-assess a negative.

• What qualities do you admire and seek out in leadership? Which of these do you need to strengthen? (ability to self-assess, personal priorities)

• Do you have strong personal goals, or do you enjoy being fluid with outcomes and tend to change goals frequently? (structured or ‘go with the flow’)

• What interests you about other people? (people-oriented or task-oriented)

• Do you prefer tried and tested systems, or do you like to change things up? (big picture or hands-on; future vs historically focused)

Want more ‘insight questions’? Head to our website to download your free copy – shift.com.au

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