How do you talk to candidates to find out what drives and motivates them?
Organisations are increasingly recruiting according to the concept of cultural fit.
This approach offers a better chance of hiring people who will stay with the organisation for a long time, which will translate into reduced staff turnover and, of course, savings.
In that case, how do we conduct a recruitment process where we find out what drives our candidates, what motivates them and what will make them commit to our company for the long term?
Such a process should be compact – i.e. have the right amount of varied opportunities to get to know the candidate but, in order to make the most of these opportunities, you need to create situations for effective conversations.
- By asking the right questions, of course.
Here is a list of 15 top questions that will reveal the true motivation and commitment of your candidates.
It’s worth including them in your recruitment process because they will help create situations for very interesting conversations that will provide information not only for you but also for the candidates themselves.
General questions about motivation.
If you get to know the dreams and goals of the candidates it may help to find out and/or make the candidates themselves aware of whether they really want to work for your organisation or perhaps, subconsciously, have other plans.
- How do you define success for your career?
- What roles do your supervisor and team play in your motivation?
- What kind of work environment makes you comfortable working?
- Would you rather work in an ideal environment with a lower salary or in a less ideal environment for a higher salary?
- If you are able to carve out extra time in your job, what do you do?
- What attracted you to your profession?
Motivation in the context of past experiences and behavior.
Motivation is an abstract quality that is difficult to define, but it can be seen in particular actions.
- Describe a moment when you failed to meet a deadline. How did you resolve it?
- When was the last time you got stuck doing repetitive work, how do you motivate yourself to continue and complete it?
- Tell me about a time when you had an idea that was great, How did you encourage your supervisors/coworkers to implement it? Was it successful in its implementation? Yes – what was the result? No – why did it fail?
- What techniques have you discovered that make your job easier or make what you do more effective?
- Can you describe a time when you found a new or unusual approach to solving a problem or task? How did this approach work for you?
- Have you ever been part of an unmotivated team? What have you done to maintain your own motivation?
Questions about engagement and the work environment.
It is natural for people to change jobs and leave. The purpose of these questions is to determine how seriously they take your role and what they need to commit to your organisation for the long term.
These questions also tell you what factors are important to build loyalty and commitment in your employees.
- What could your current company change about your work, team or culture to keep you on their team?
- How would you define a healthy work-life balance? At what point do you feel it is necessary to blur boundaries?
- What would motivate you to stay with our company for the next 5 years?
A well-designed process and the selection of challenging questions is one thing, but the other thing that is just as important is to ensure that we get real answers to these questions.
Crucial to the effectiveness of such a process is not to be satisfied with any answer – a replica, but to continue with the topic until we hear a concrete answer to the question.
Fifteen years of experience in various areas related to working with clients in the highest standards of customer service, recruitment areas like employer branding, creating strategies facilitating the process, augmenting and building new teams.
