There is a strategy to hiring winners and when I understood AND implemented the strategy, it was only a matter of weeks and everything turned around for the better.
The most important strategy for picking winners is to investigate and thoroughly understand the candidate’s record of success and failure in their employment history.
What the candidate has done in their previous jobs is the primary predictor of how they will do in the future.
Early in the hiring process, commit to really understanding the job candidate’s background by asking questions designed to give you a real understanding of the candidate’s real job history.
It is critically important to have the right questions to ask. These questions could be asked by you or any member of your interview team. Meet with the interview team ahead of time and assign specific questions to members of the team.
Duplicating some of the questions with several interviewers can also be helpful as comparing answers will give you insights into consistency.
Here is a list of questions that will give you a clear picture of the Prospective Employee’s previous work.
- How could you have been more successful in your previous job?
- What would your co-workers say about you in your previous job?
- Describe your responsibilities in your previous job.
- What are you most proud of concerning your previous employment situation?
- What would your previous supervisor say about how you did in your previous job?
- What did your typical day look like in your previous job?
- What are you most proud of with regards to your accomplishments in your previous job?
- What disappointments did you have with your previous jobs?
- How could you have been more successful in your previous job?
- Knowing what you know now if you were to start your previous job over from the beginning, what would you do differently?
- What kind of supervision do you respond best to?
- What is your learning style?
Additional questions that can and perhaps should be added to this list, Depending on your situation. The critical thing is to have a series of written questions to guide the conversations.
If you’re interviewing several candidates, and you should be, it’s important to keep notes from each of the conversations. Interview notes will serve as a permanent reminder of how the different candidates answered the same questions in your team debrief.
