Ask These Four Questions Before Accepting That Job

What do you want most out of your new workplace? Although you sometimes just want to take any job, in a competitive job market, you might do your career a favor by waiting for the perfect job opportunity. Before you say yes to accepting an offer, here are four questions you should ask your future employer.

1. How Do You Encourage Work-Life Balance?

Balancing a professional and personal life has become much more important to younger workers who want both the flexibility of a great career and a fulfilling family life. Find out if the company offers family leave, work-at-home options, four-day workweeks and flexible schedules. Once a company says you're the one, asking to see the full benefits package ahead of accepting an offer is totally fine. Just as a company thoroughly vetted your skills and qualifications before hiring you, you deserve to know everything your future employer brings to the table.

2. How Do You Ensure Workers Get Along and Work Toward Common Goals?

Teamwork is a huge part of working for a company, but it goes beyond that concept. One buzzword in the contemporary labor market is employee engagement. That's where companies measure how workers stay focused and happy at their jobs. How do employees get along with each other? Is there a great sense of camaraderie and accomplishment? Would they like to hang out if they didn't work together?

Companies must be proactive when it comes to employee engagement. Firms continually ask questions about how to improve the workplace environment, and they study how best to retain happy workers. Do employees want a relaxed atmosphere, better benefits, open-ended communication or a pet-friendly environment? Any employer worth its salt already knows what makes everyone happy at the office, and the hiring manager can promote and vouch for those ideas strategically as you consider accepting an offer.

3. How Do Company Leaders Create an Inclusive and Diverse Work Environment?

Diverse firms tend to survive financial rough patches, innovate better than competitors who lack diversity, and foster better sense of which direction the company must go in the future. The easiest way to find out about diversity in your potential employer is to take a tour and meet everyone. Whom do you see? Accepting an offer from a diverse and inclusive company means you'll probably be working for a company with good employee engagement and forward-thinking innovation.

4. How Does the Company Innovate?

Technology changes rapidly, and businesses that fail to keep up fall behind very quickly. Before accepting an offer, find out what the company is currently doing to move ahead of the competition. Does your firm have regular brainstorming sessions, where all ideas are worthy of consideration? How well do employees communicate their bright ideas with each other and with supervisors?

These four questions deal with issues that come straight from the top. Make sure prospective company leaders and executives buy into these four concepts so you know you are accepting an offer from a firm that fits your ideals closely.

Photo courtesy of Mark Morgan at Flickr.com