So you’re pretty sure that your shortlist of candidates are able to carry out the role you’re looking to fill. Great! But what about when it comes to the ‘fit’ with your organisation’s values, culture and the existing team you’re hoping to slot them into?

To avoid personality clashes or unwanted character traits sneaking in undetected, you need to ensure that you ask behavioural interview questions to make doubly sure that the candidate won’t just be able to do the job, but will gel nicely with your current staff.

Here are some of our top behavioural questions to reduce the risk of trying to put a square peg in a round hole. We’ve split this blog into a two part mini-series as there’s a lot of ground to cover – so make sure you subscribe to our blog and ensure you don’t miss part two.

Working as a team

These questions will ask the candidate to demonstrate how they work with others in difficult circumstances.

1. Talk about a time when you had to work closely with someone whose personality was very different from yours.
2. Give me an example of a time you faced a conflict while working on a team project. How did you handle that?
3. Tell me about a time you needed to get information from someone who wasn’t very responsive. What did you do?

Adaptation skills

You want to make sure that your candidate can think on their feet, and that you won’t have to hold their hand constantly if things get tough. The ability to adapt behaviour and thinking when a tricky situation arises gives you a valuable insight into how they handle change.

1. Tell me about a time you were under a lot of pressure. What was going on, and how did you get through it?
2. Describe a time when your team or company was undergoing some change. How did that impact you, and how did you adapt?
3. Tell me about a time you failed. How did you deal with this situation?

Time Management

If deadlines are particularly important to your business (and let’s face it – when is it NOT important) you don’t want to be concerning yourself that someone else will have to pick up the slack if your candidate has poor time management skills. But what’s also important hear is not just that they have these skills, but how they behave to get things done.

1. Tell me about a time you had to be very strategic in order to meet all your top priorities.
2. Describe a long-term project that you managed. How did you keep everything moving along in a timely manner?
3. Sometimes it’s just not possible to get everything on your to-do list done. Tell me about a time your responsibilities got a little overwhelming. What did you do?

Adding some of these behavioural interview questions is going to open the candidate up so you can get that all important insight into the type of person you’re interviewing.

Don’t miss out on part two of our behavioural interview questions mini-series where we’ll give you some expert advice on communication and values questions on subscribe today.