Are there any questions I should avoid asking a potential employee in the interview?

‘Questions are never indiscreet. Answers sometimes are’. Oscar Wilde

In a recent survey the five most popular interview questions asked were:
• So why do you want to work there/here?
• What are your weaknesses?
• Why should they/we hire you?
• Why are you leaving/have you left your job?
• Where do you want to be in five years time?Oh come on..... Is that really the best we can do?

If they are the top five, then most candidates will get asked them, time after time. So these are the questions they are most polished at answering and we end up hearing what they want us to hear. The end result is we put forward/hire the most polished interviewee not the best person for the job. Go on, shake up your interview questions to find out the real person behind the answers.

If you have any questions you want answers to email askwozza@recruitmentmatters.com

Any tips on interviewing candidates body language wozza?

'I speak two languages, Body and English’. Mae West

Sometimes what a candidate says can tell you one thing and their body language something quite different. Is it possible to read someone’s body language accurately? The answer is probably no if you are simply looking for text book “arms crossed - defensive”, “hand over mouth - lying” type movements. The vast majority of those ideas are gross generalisations. What if the cross armed person was simply feeling chilly or the mouth covering person was disguising a cold sore?

Well that’s those theories out of the window then!

Reading body language has got far more to do with observing changes in someone’s body posture & behaviour. Spend five minutes at the start of an interview making the person feel relaxed when talking about something in their comfort zone. Test what they look like when discussing things they are passionate and knowledgeable about. Thereafter, you can compare their relaxed, confident and open state with changes further into the conversation. We all know that it is what someone says plus how they say it and their body language that paints the full picture. So watch their body language, listen carefully to their answers and get a feel for how they says things (tonality, pitch, volume, speed) and the changes along the way and you will have a far more accurate assessment of a candidate’s suitability.

I hope this answered your question. If you want to post a question send it to askwozza@recruitmentmatters.com