The first introduction to a candidate is the resume. Recruiters may look at hundreds of resumes for a single position, looking for the right skills, experience and education. They look for accomplishment statements, the right list of technical skills and tech background. Most candidates are charming, polite and can answer questions. How is a recruiter to find out if a candidate has the kind of people skills needed to fit the company’s culture, the work team and impress clients?
A recent Salary.com article, “7 Signs You Have Terrible People Skills,” gives tips for job seekers on rating their people skills and making improvement where necessary. These tips are useful for creating interview questions recruiters can use to reveal the true personality behind the smiles and polite conversation.
Keeping a cool head in a crisis is a valuable people skill. The workplace can be full or stress and an occasional crisis. Asking an open-ended question such as, “Describe a time when you had to handle a crisis on the job and what you did to solve it,” will give you some insight into a candidate’s problem-solving skills and how they handle stressful situations. Watch body language as they describe the situation, and probe for details. If they remain calm, chances are they handled the real situation calmly.
People who lack confidence will show it in answering questions with limiting language like “I think…” or “I’m not sure, but.” They don’t make eye contact and fidget in their seats. On the other hand, to mask their lack of self-confidence, they talk too much.
Interviews are all about communication. One sign of poor communication skills is the inability to listen. Communication is two-way. A candidate who doesn’t listen to questions or interrupts the interviewer will do the same on the job. Managers who are poor listeners frustrate their team members and are ineffective mentors and leaders.
Every team needs members who can set and achieve goals. In a challenging work environment there is no room for quitters. Spend some time asking candidates about how they set goals, what goals were the most challenging and if they every missed accomplishing an important goal and why. Insist on specifics. Another question could be, “If you were asked to complete a task you knew was beyond your capabilities, what you would do?”
Office politics is unavoidable. There are people who love to be part of the “in crowd,” working politics to their benefit, and those who can’t stand the favoritism or game playing that is part of the workplace culture. How do candidates deal with personalities that clash in the workplace, or a boss who puts all her efforts in impressing the boss for her personal gain? What if the boss asked the candidate to do something that was unethical or illegal? These are tough questions, but can give insight into a candidate’s honesty and boundaries.
The ability to give constructive feedback, coach and counsel employees is an important skill set for a manager or supervisor. How a candidate reacts to feedback also says something about how open they are to feedback and making positive changes. Asking some situational questions about how the candidate would handle disciplinary actions and the thought process behind making personnel decisions gives insight into his comfort level and confidence to handle difficult people situations and make solid decisions based on fact and not emotion.
No one likes a candidate that brags or presumes they are the best or the only suitable candidate for a job. The opposite is also true. A confident candidate has a healthy and honest evaluation of her abilities and is comfortable sharing accomplishments. An interview is not the place to be shy or self-deprecating. The more specifics in an example, told with confidence and a sense of pride, the more impressive the candidate.
These seven signs of poor people skills give recruiters seven warning signs to look for in an interview. Turn each into questions to reveal whether a candidate has the right skills to be a successful “people-person” for the job.
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