Interview Questions to Identify "Fit" Candidates

 

The previous post described the importance of finding an individual who not only can do the job but who also fits into the environment and culture of your organization. Posts in our GIGs agree that preparation for selection is important, so what special preparation does it take? There are two types of interview questions that are particularly useful here.

Forced Choosing . . . Create a set of questions that require the candidate to choose between two culture/environmental situations, one that describes your culture and another that describes the opposite. Be careful not to "telegraph" the answer you are looking for. Force a choice, then ask for the reason why to get to the detailed candidate preferences that matter. Example:

If you had to choose, which is your preference: To work in a group that changes direction every few months to meet  demands of leadership or in a group where projects are usually executed to completion to meet demands of the marketplace?

What Would You Do? . . . Ask a set of behavioral questions that require analysis and response to see if candidates decisions are consistent with the existing (or desired) work culture. Example:

What would you do in this situation? You are working on two separate projects as a business analyst and both projects require you to complete major deliverables within a couple of weeks. Recently some unplanned meetings have taken up your time and you do not believe you can complete both deliverables  on time.

Your organization may prefer the individual to follow specific escalation steps in this case or either prefer that the individual resolve the problem on her own . The candidate's tendencies will come out in answers to questions like these.

With a set of questions from both of these categories, you can more easily identify candidates that will fit and those that will not fit.

Teammates can be a great help to purge the unworthy, because they will suffer as much as anyone if the wrong choice is made, but they do not necessarily have the interview skills required. The solution is to provide teammates with the questions and guidance on what responses well fit candidates will exhibit and let the future co-workers give candidates a good lookover.

If you have had problems with smart workers that are "unfit" for your culture or environment, please comment. If you have other selection tactics, let us know.