People Operations Playbook

Interviewing like an Investigator

by Paula comfort, chief recruiter at Hire ground talent

Careful interviewing is a skill to be mastered. Avoiding generic questions in interviews is crucial to uncover both meaningful insights, and to understand the candidate’s unique fit for the role and your team. Generic questions often deliver predictable, rehearsed responses that fail to reveal the depth of a candidate’s experience, skills, and personality. Questions such as: tell me about yourself, why should we hire you, what are your greatest strengths (and even worse), what are your greatest weaknesses? Cap this off with where do you see yourself in 3-5 years and you’re guaranteed to be told: “to be a productive member of a team that prides themselves on a strong work ethic and working together to surpass our goals.”

Instead, prepare your questions in advance, tailoring your questions based on the candidates resume, rather than simply a one size fits all. When interviewing make sure you have questions that reflect both the hard skills and soft skills of the job. Hard skills such as the CRM system that you use, or the ability to read a P&L statement. Soft skills, are more reflective of a persons emotional intelligence which is incredible important when hiring for either sales or leadership roles.

With the role you are hiring in mind, set your questions with the following five tips in mind:

Open-ended questions – Let the candidate do most of the talking. (Elicits more information than closed-ended questions.
Question layering – Continue to ask additional questions until you get specific and the truth. (useful in overcoming a rehearsed answer or lie)
Role Plays – Give a candidate a realistic situation- together act out the scenario Demonstrate knowledge, skills and ability to think on their feet.
Situational questions – Give the candidate a scenario and ask how they would handle it.
Behavioural Questions – Ask a candidate to describe how they dealt with a past situation. (past behaviour predicts future performance)

When you ask tailored and specific questions that address the candidate’s past experiences, problem-solving abilities, and interpersonal skills you are able foster a more engaging and informative conversation. You will gain a clearer picture of how the candidate approaches challenges, along with their potential fit within your organizations culture. On the other side, you are also showing your investment in them as a possible member of the team, rather than another person to check off the list in your attempt to fill the role. Interviews are difficult for most people, helping candidates feel at ease and able to open up enough to show who they really are, while you get the opportunity to share your company culture in a positive light is a win-win.

Hire Ground Talent is a boutique recruitment agency specializing in executive search and leadership roles. From C-suite and other corporate roles covering all departments to onsite managers – HGT has successfully placed top talent. To fully support talent management, HGT formed a Collective which includes onboarding, employee engagement, learning and development, retention, demographic tends in the workplace and talent optimization.

Paula Comfort

chief recruiter at Hire ground talent

Paula Comfort is not your average recruiter! With more than 25 years in the health, fitness, wellness industry, she has either personally performed or had direct reports in all departments within the industry. During her tenure she has been responsible for…

Is Hiring Your Biggest Challenge?

by Tom Johnston, Talent Optimization Consultant at Talent Optimizer Group

The traditional hiring process can be time-consuming, particularly when it involves sifting through large numbers of resumes and conducting multiple rounds of interviews. It’s exhausting, expensive, and frustrating for both your team and your candidates.

A Recruiter’s Secret Interview Questions

by paula comfort, Chief recruiter at hire ground talent

To really uncover what is not on the resume you need to be a researcher, investigator and navigate a real true honest conversation with the candidate. Interviewing for what is not on the resume is a powerful strategy to uncover qualities, skills, and experiences that may not be explicitly listed.