What questions should you ask when interviewing an employee for your small business?
In this video, I share interview questions every small business owner must ask potential employees.
Below you'll find a number of fantastic questions to ask when interviewing an employee for your small business.
*Note that my favorite questions to ask are in bold!*
Questions to get to know the candidate
If you're hiring a new employee for your small business, you're going to want to get to know them! So ask some questions like:
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
What are your favorite hobbies?
What do you do for fun?
I also like to lead my employee interviews off with "tell me about yourself."
Questions about the candidate’s work experience
Most of the candidates interviewing for your small business will have some work experience. I recommend asking them:
Can you walk me through your resume and explain your employment background?
Why are you leaving your current position?
Why did you leave your last few positions?
Based on your work experience, why do you think you would be a good fit for this position?
What’s one skill you have that sets you apart from other candidates for this job?
Questions about the candidate’s ambition
No small business owner wants to hire somebody that simply wants to clock in and clock out. We want them to work! So ask them questions like:
Why do you want to work here?
What motivates you?
Who inspires you?
What is your greatest strength and weakness?
What did you like the most and least about your last job?
Where do you see yourself in five years?
What do you hope to learn from this job?
If money was not a factor, what would you be doing?
Questions about the candidate’s personality and flexibility
I recommend hiring candidates for your small business that have a good personality and are flexible. To identify this, ask them:
How would your friends or coworkers describe you?
What's the biggest misperception people have about you?
Do you work better independently or as part of a team?
What kind of personalities do you work best with and why?
How do you like to be managed?
Questions about challenging circumstances
It's unlikely that you'll be there to handhold every new employee throughout their entire workday. Learn how they handle challenging circumstances by asking them:
Tell me about a time when you experienced conflict at work. How did you handle it?
Tell me about a time you received constructive feedback in the past. How did you handle it?
What would you do if you were working on a team with a member who was not doing their share of the work?
What would you do if you were assigned a task you’d never done before?
Questions about why the candidate wants to work for the company
We all have candidates that apply to our job positions that know absolutely nothing about the company. Therefore, I recommend asking:
What do you know about the company?
What is most important to you in a company?
What is your ideal company culture?
What is your ideal work schedule?
Why did you apply here?
Why should I hire you?
Questions to wrap up the interview
As the interview is coming to a close, you want to learn a few more key details by asking:
What are your salary requirements or expectations?
If you were offered this position, when would you be available to start?
What questions do you have for me about the job opportunity?
What do you feel I need to know that we haven’t discussed?
Final thoughts
There are a million and one questions you can ask during an interview! What are your favorite questions to ask during small business interviews? Let me know in the comments below and stay tuned for my next video where we can reflect and grow stronger together.
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