Why should you assess teamwork when hiring new employees?
Working on a team is crucial to almost every job position, from entry-level to executive. Teamwork will drive your company forward and make it truly successful.
Hiring the best candidate with the most impressive job history, experience and skills won’t mean a thing if this star candidate isn’t able to fit in with your existing employees.
You need to hire the best candidate not only for your job, but also for your existing team.
If you don’t assess your candidates’ propensity to teamwork, your star candidate might easily turn out to be a bad hire.
According to a press release published by Career Builder, around 74% of the companies make bad hiring choices, and each of the bad decisions costs them $17,000 in an average.
Don’t let that happen to you! Don’t get swept away by your candidates perfect resume and interview answers. Make sure that your star candidates are team players before you offer them a job!
Asking the right interview questions will help you verify if your candidates are indeed true team players. That way, you will be able to make more informed hiring decisions.
How to tell if a candidate is a team player?
The best way to tell if your candidate is a team player is by assessing their past working experience.
In other words, you should ask behavioral interview questions related to teamwork.
If you ask the right interview questions and listen carefully, you should be able to tell if your candidate is a real team player at heart – or just posing as one.
Why great teams need team players
Pretty much every role requires teamworkâeven if that just means being able to chat at the water cooler. Even employees who work alone need to recognize the results of their work impact everyone.
Your ideal team player candidate can:
Mediate touchy situations before they get outta control
Create healthy work environments
Bring out their colleaguesâ strengths
Accept feedback and aim for improvementÂ
Whether itâs handling conflicts or organizing company activities to build team spirit, team players are central to a happy, healthy work culture.Â
Top tip: Ask entry-level candidates to provide examples of great teamwork from their college work, internships or extracurricular activities.
Whatâs your favorite example of a great team project you worked on? What was your role and what did you achieve?
Have you ever had to work with people outside your team? How did you connect and hit your deadlines?Â
Everyone has had a colleague they didnât get along with. Describe a time youâve had to work with someone you didnât want to.
Has your team ever missed a goal? What happened and what did you learn?
What would you do if you proposed an idea and got backlash from your team?
Working on an assigned project task independently vs. working on a whole project as a team: What do you prefer and why?
How would you onboard a new colleague?
How do you give kudos to a great team member?
How do you promote team spirit?Â
How would you motivate a disengaged employee?
How would ace remote team communication?
What group collaboration tools have you used?
Pro candidates: Youâre looking for someone who can share plenty of past experiences so you know what youâre dealing with.
They know how to celebrate: Candidates who own their accomplishments and praise their coworkersâ contributions are people you want to work with.
Solid communication skills: Candidates who know how to connect are going to be 100% more efficient.
They want to know more: Look for candidates who ask questions about team structure.Â
They say âIâ too much: Thereâs no âIâ in âTeamâ. If they talk too much about themselves, it could be a sign they prefer lone-working.
Quick, generic answers: If a candidate canât describe specific situations, theyâre probably trying to avoid answering the question.
Arrogance: Arrogant candidates are a big no-no. These guys or gals wonât do well in a team if they donât value other peopleâs opinions.
They play the blame-game: Candidates who make excuses for bad results just show theyâre not team players.
Micromanagers: Controlling candidates who donât trust their teammates will slow down processes and risk damaging team spirit.
Describe Your Ability to be a Team Player Interview Question
