THE 5 BEST INTERVIEW QUESTIONS YOU AREN’T ASKING

 A Message from the President

Dear Colleagues,
Spring has sprung! The taxes are (hopefully) done, the weather is warming up,
and things are in full bloom. In this season of growth and new beginnings, you
may be ready to embark on some housekeeping in your workplace, too. Mid-year
is a great time to look at some of your company’s current business practices,
evaluate what’s working and what isn’t, and do a little “spring cleaning” in those
areas that may have been neglected in the rush of the new year. For this issue,
we’ve decided to focus on one important (but often overlooked) aspect of the hiring
process: the interview.

To help fine-tune candidate screening skills and give our typical interview questions a makeover, we’ve enlisted the help of noted hiring expert Barry Deutsch of
IMPACT Hiring Solutions. Barry has a long history of helping small and large
businesses attract, hire, and retain top talent. I hope you enjoy his tips for insightful
interviewing as much as I did.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth M. Rice, SPHR

 Success-Based Sourcing: Separating Good Interviews from
Good Candidates

Too often, many of us end up hiring the candidate who’s best at the interview, but may not be best at the job. We tend to rely heavily on instinct and good first impressions, and favor candidates who give us the smoothest, most polished answers. As a result, we often end up hiring the most articulate interviewee, but not necessarily the one most likely to succeed long-term in the position. So how do you fine-tune your screening skills to separate the good interview from the truly great candidate? One way to begin is by giving your interview questions an overhaul: weeding out those that are no longer helpful, and adding new ones that provide insight into how a candidate is really likely to perform in a position.

For help, IES turned to Barry Deutsch of Impact Hiring Solutions. Barry has 15+ years of experience in executive search practices, and his “You’re Not the Person I Hired” workshops have helped thousands of companies understand how to find and hire the right people. When it comes to interview questions, Deutsch says, most people are missing the mark by continuing to do the same old things they’ve always done. “The majority of hiring managers and executives tend to use the same, standard list of mundane questions,” he says. “In fact, most executives will tell you that their list of interview questions is based on what they were asked in their own interviews years (or even decades) before.”

Below, Deutsch offers a list of some common interview questions to stop asking, along with the 5 critical ones that provide worthwhile insight and will hopefully keep you well-supplied with outstanding talent.