3 Interview Tips for Finding the Best Employees

Before Carol joined Homebase, she was the head of HR for a large national chain, so she knows how daunting it can feel to sort through applicants for that true out-performer. Today she’s sharing some recruiting tips will help you pinpoint the top employees in a mountain of applications.

Finding a star employee can be a game-changer for any business​, but especially if you’ve got a small team, because each new hire has a tremendous impact on the team (and their productivity).

Here are our 3 key questions when interviewing an employee. Keep these topics in mind during your interviews and you will find the team members that help your business thrive! And, of course, once you’ve built that stellar team, use Homebase for team scheduling and time tracking.

Star Employee or Attendance Problem in the Making?

3 Interview Questions that Uncover a Diamond in the Rough

1.“What did you learn through that experience?”

Candidates open to learning perform best

• The secret in selection is that highly skilled candidates frequently associate learning experiences with their areas of strength.
• Managers too often focus on number of years worked — resume experience is an indicator of important skills, but be sure to uncover if the candidate was any good in those positions.
• Applicants that grew and evolved in previous roles are likely to do so in your business as well.

2.“Tell me about a personal or professional challenge that you have overcome”

Find a self-starter that will take initiative to help your team

• Level of education and work history are factual indicators of a drive for results, but life experiences can be equally strong indicators of work ethic and drive.
• Do not miss a strong candidate that bounced around jobs because they needed to move closer to home to help a family member while trying to finish a GED.

3.“Tell me about a time when you failed to deliver customer service”

Asking about failures during the interview reveals strengths

• In areas where we excel, we typically recall when we failed in that skillset.
• A person that prides him or herself in their customer service skills will be haunted by the time they didn’t and will quickly recall the experience. Someone that usually disagrees with co-workers will have more trouble remembering or articulating a specific experience.
• Come full circle with tip #1 “what did you learn from that failure?” and you unearth whether the candidate is strong or weak in that skillset.

You can also download a PDF version of these tips to share with your team.

Use Homebase free hiring tools to save time finding qualified candidates at your business.