Bringing in new energy, ideas, and inspiration can help revitalise, develop, and grow businesses – and whether this is from the ground up, or from the top down, it’s important to have the right people. But how do you know who the right people are? What should you be asking, and doing, in order to fill the high-ranking positions with the right talent?
Getting it wrong can be costly, almost 75% of companies who made a ‘bad hire’ reported an average of $14,900 in wasted money, with 34% of CFOs said that bad hires cost them productivity and managers having to spend 17% of their time supervising poor performers.
So how do you get it right? What questions should you be asking at high levels in order to make sure you’ve got the right person for the job?
About the Candidate
Before you look at skills, qualifications, and work history – you need to look at the personality of the applicant; after all – skills can be learned, but it’s exceptionally difficult to change someone’s personality.
Consider your company’s vision and value statements – what you believe in, what is important to the company, and what is essential in making you who you are. These values will provide the metrics you need to get started.
Questions you should consider asking include:
- If you had any choice of any job, at any company – where would you go and why?
- What is the biggest change you’ve ever dealt with, and how did you handle it?
- What do you think our company’s vision, values and mission are?
- What makes you effective in your role?
- What is your view on diversity, equality, and equal opportunities?
- How would you describe your leadership style?
- What traits do you admire in a leader?
The answers to these questions will help you determine whether they are a good fit, personality-wise, for your organisation – and whether you feel they can be trusted to accurately translate your vision and values into their work.
About their Work
Once you’ve determined that someone is a good fit from a personal perspective, you need to look at how they work, what is important to them (their own personal values), and whether they’ve done their research – candidates that come in with no knowledge of the company, or no drive to seek improvement, aren’t going to do well in high-ranking positions that require non-linear thinking, and an active approach.
Questions you should consider asking include:
- What do you think our company is missing right now?
- How do you get the most out of your team?
- How do you motivate and keep your team focused?
- What steps would you take to evolve and grow our goals and company culture?
- What decisions do you find the most difficult to make, and why?
- What do you bring to a team that we need?
The answers to these questions will help you determine what the candidate values, how they approach situations, and whether they have an accurate sense of their own capabilities, and whether they are well-suited for leading teams.
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About their Qualifications and Goals
In order to grow as a company, you need to have people who want to do their best, and who are motivated to do more, and be more. Of course, you need to provide good reason for this, and adequate monetary compensation (not many people are going to want to work for free) – but when you invest in your team, you want them to strive to do their best and grow.
This means looking for candidates who are hungry for more, who aren’t content to just be given a brief and work to it without ever questioning the how and why.
Questions you should be asking here include:
- What would you say are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?
- What have you done to improve your communication skills?
- How would you rate your listening skills?
- Describe a time when a supervisor or senior criticised your work.
- When was the last time you undertook a training course or activity to improve your skills?
- What problem/s did you have in a previous position (or current role) that you wanted to resolve, but didn’t? Why not?
- What is the most interesting thing about you that isn’t on your resume?
- Describe yourself in one word.
These questions will give you an insight into their motivations, abilities, and whether they will stagnate if they are given a role that requires self-motivation. Finding the right people for you high-ranking positions will take time and effort, but when you do, the benefits to your company, your team, and your bottom line, can be enormous.