Best Job Interview Questions to Find the Right Talent for Company Culture

Finding the right person to align with and add to company culture goes beyond assessing a candidate’s skills and experience. The right candidate must fit in with company values, mission, and work environment. The job interview questions utilized and how they are framed can go a long way toward gauging an optimal fit.

These questions can provide insights into a candidate’s personality, work style, and potential culture add. With the right interview questions, companies can find talent that not only excels in their role but enhances the work culture.

Maintaining Open Communication During the Hiring Process

To attract the best talent, organizations need to maintain open, clear, and transparent communication throughout the process. Be clear about what the company and the role are all about, what the role has to offer applicants, and what to expect during the hiring process.

• How many people are being considered?
• How long will the hiring process take?
• How will candidates receive communications?
• What can a candidate expect if they accept an offer?

Keep in mind that an interview can last anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour or more. To get the most out of this step, interview questions should be relevant to the position in question and designed to promote honest and thoughtful answers. Use probing and follow-up questions as needed to obtain a complete understanding of the candidate.

Top Job Interview Questions to Review Behavior and Personality

There are several resources available for interviewees to review common interview questions and determine the “right” answers. Companies looking for a good fit should ask questions that will make candidates think outside of these stock answers.

Candidate Strengths and Weaknesses

While it’s important to determine a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, many experts encourage interviewers to move away from direct questions about these areas. These types of questions require candidates to be highly self-aware and honest in their answers. Reframing these types of questions leads to more honest and beneficial answers.

Try instead,

• “Tell me about a challenge you had to overcome to advance your career.”

Another option is,

• “What trait do you have that has been most beneficial in advancing your career.”

Used correctly, these questions provide insight into how a candidate may align with company goals and needs.

Candidate Accomplishments

To gauge a candidate’s potential, ask questions about their career accomplishments, challenges, and expertise.

• “What career accomplishments are you most proud of?”

This question provides insight into whether a candidate takes pride in their work and what accomplishments make them feel most fulfilled.

• “Describe the most challenging goal you have set yourself and how you achieved it.”

This question shows how willing a candidate is to take on new career challenges and the steps they are willing to take.

• “Tell me about a topic you have become an expert in throughout your career. Walk me through how you became an expert in this topic.”

This question provides honest insight into what a candidate sees as important to their career growth.

Candidate Resourcefulness

Every role comes with complications and conflicts. To determine how a candidate will handle these issues, it is important to ask job interview questions about the candidate’s ability to handle difficulties.

• “Tell me about a time you had a task that required skills outside your expertise.”

This question allows interviewers to determine how willing a candidate is to learn new skills and grow in their career.

• “Tell me about a time you had to handle conflicting priorities or directions.”

This question provides insights into a candidate’s ability to prioritize and follow procedures.

• “Describe a past difficult work situation and how you handled this.”

This question gives insight into how a candidate will react under pressure and how flexible they can be.

• “Describe a time when you had to work with someone who had a different work style or personality from you. How did you handle this?”

This question shows how well a candidate can adapt to different working situations and how well they can work with people of diverse backgrounds.

Job Role Understanding and Fit

Job interview questions should include insights into how well a candidate understands and fits into the role in question.

• “Tell me how this role fits into your long-term career plans.”

This question provides a glimpse into how the candidate will handle the role. It provides insight into a candidate’s goals and how they can be fulfilled over the long-term.

• “Walk me through a time you had to complete (specific job function).”

This question shows how well a candidate’s processes fit with the company processes. It also provides more insight into how well a candidate understands the required job functions.

• “Walk me through a time you had to work as part of a team. Tell me what role you played, what the goals of the team were, and whether the team was successful.”

This question provides more honest feedback on how well a candidate can work in a team environment. Other teamwork questions to consider include:

• “Tell me about the most effective team you have been on.”
• “Tell me about the least effective team you have been on.”

These questions provide insight into the types of team dynamics an interviewee prefers, providing more insight into how they will work within specific cultures.

Culture Add Questions

Finding the right company culture fit isn’t just about finding someone who fits into the current culture. For a positive company culture, an organization must look for someone who will add value to the company culture. This is where culture add job interview questions are useful.

Culture add questions help determine if a candidate will fit in with the company’s values while enhancing company culture.

Candidates should be aware the job interview questions are shifting towards questions meant to know them better. Interviewers should emphasize that there are no right or wrong answers.

Culture add questions include:

• “Tell me about the work environment that you have been able to be most effective in.”
• “Tell me about the most stressful environment you have worked in. Why was it stressful? What did you do to cope with the stress? How did it work out?”
• “Tell me about your favorite leader you have worked for. What traits made them your favorite? Why did you work well together?”
• “Describe a time you took a decision-making risk and the outcome of this decision.”
• “How would you describe the culture at your previous place of employment?”

When asking this type of question, it is important to include follow-up questions.

Some options include:

• “What did you like about the culture? What did you not like?”
• “Were you comfortable working in this environment? Why or why not?
• “Tell me about your favorite job.”
• “Tell me about the company you worked for where you felt the most engaged.”
• “How do you believe your values would align with our company values and mission?”
• “What about our company values and mission resonate with you?”

Remember that the job interview questions shouldn’t be one-sided. It’s important to provide opportunities for the candidate to ask follow-up or other questions during the interview and again at the end.

Questions to Avoid

Avoid any job interview questions that lead to answers around citizenship, disabilities, children, pregnancies, age, marital status, gender, race, or other protected classifications.

It is best to steer clear of any questions asking candidates to talk more about themselves without direction. These types of questions can lead to discussions that associate them with protected classifications, red flag topics, or rabbit holes that are unhelpful and don’t efficiently utilize interview time.

It is also best practice to avoid questions that start with “how would” or “how do” as this leads to hypotheticals that can lead to generic or false answers. These types of questions don’t provide a true picture of how a candidate would really behave, rather what they think the interviewer wants to hear.

Asking questions about what attracted a candidate to a role, or other like questions can also provide false answers based on what the candidate believes the interviewer wants to hear. At all times, it is best to avoid questions that don’t provide real insights about a candidate.

Developing a Successful Recruiting, Interviewing, and Hiring Process

Optimizing job interview questions is just one step in a successful recruiting and hiring process. To find the right talent to meet company needs and create a positive company culture, organizations must have clear, consistent practices in place. These practices should clearly model the company culture, what the role has to offer, and what candidates can expect at each step.

If you are unsure about your current recruiting and hiring processes, or you need help developing job interview questions customized to your organization’s needs, contact us to learn how we can help you set up the best hiring processes to promote your company’s growth and success.

Written by: HR Solutions Team & Penny Clark