• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Interviewing

20 ‘Silver Bullet’ Interview Questions That Identify Great Job Applicants

02/16/2024
Interview questions come in all flavors. Sometimes they’re straightforward, sometimes they’re tricky and sometimes they’re just plain weird—“If you were an animal, what kind would you be?” But the best interview questions focus on what applicants know how to do. Here are 20 questions you can use to elicit the information you need to pick the right person for the job.

Torn between two applicants? Here’s how to pick a winner

08/23/2023
Hiring is rarely easy, and it’s particularly difficult when you have narrowed the choice to two strong candidates. How do you make the decision between two apparently equal applicants?

Managerial fit: The key to a hire making it to the one-year anniversary

05/26/2023
A common problem in the rush to fill jobs is that too many shortcuts are taken, with a focus on compensation and competency rather than performance, fit and satisfaction. A positive win-win hiring outcome after one year means the new employee is still fully satisfied with the role and his career progression, and the hiring manager (often you) still fully supports and endorses the employee.

Get facts straight when ranking candidates

01/10/2023
Careful documentation can be a two-edged sword. Notes may reveal efforts to make one candidate look weaker than she really is if it becomes clear that the assessors got the facts supporting their conclusions wrong. That’s what happened in a recent case.

Hire high performers by utilizing motivation-based interviewing

12/14/2022
“We have an epidemic problem of overrating the job candidate. The problem is your interview questions.” That was a statement from Carol Quinn, best-selling author and creator of motivation-based interviewing, in a recent webinar hosted by Business Management Daily.

Hiring pros reveal their favorite interview questions

11/30/2022
Even if you have interviewed hundreds of candidates over 25 years, you want to update your question arsenal occasionally. Here are a few tried and true ones you may not have thought of, and some favorites from hiring experts. Add them to your list and pass them to managers and others in your company responsible for hiring.

Identical interview questions key to surviving rejected applicant’s suit

11/22/2022
The hiring process is a common lawsuit trigger for candidates not selected for the job they’re interviewing for. Lawsuits alleging race or other forms of discrimination may focus on individual questions, the hiring committee’s demographic composition or some other perceived discriminatory action. The best way to counter this is with a carefully crafted interview process.

Try offbeat interview questions

11/22/2022
Try to go beyond résumés. The Talent Blog suggests some offbeat questions. Here are a few variations.

The 5 worst interview questions & what to ask instead

06/24/2022
The interview remains a hiring manager’s most effective tool for evaluating job candidates. Unfortunately, managers too often rely on a list of standard interview questions for which most applicants have canned responses. Here are five common questions to avoid, as well as suggestions for more productive queries that will help you make the correct hiring choice:

Using AI in hiring? Beware liability for bias

04/21/2022
Employers increasingly rely on artificial intelligence-based software to manage the hiring process. But critics of AI software claim discrimination may be baked into the algorithms.