What do you know about questioning techniques..?

Using the right style of questioning is an essential part of the recruitment process, as it will allow you to obtain relevant and useful information.

There are a number of different techniques, which all have their uses. I would recommend using a mixture to best evaluate a candidate’s suitability. 

Closed questions: Only allow for ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or one word answers, for example ‘Have you worked in finance before?’. Closed questions aren’t used too much in an interview situation as they do not allow for expansion and can result in an awkward, silent room!. They do however have a place in some circumstances, for example ‘Are you looking to qualify in accountancy?’

Open Questions: These will allow for someone to explain themselves in far greater detail, for example ‘Talk me through how you got into finance as a career?’ They often start with how, what, why, talk me through or explain. Open questions are a powerful tool in an interview as they will allow the interviewer to gauge if the person is capable of talking about themselves and their career history in detail.

Probing Questions: This technique is also useful in an interview situation. If an interviewee is being vague, or simply finding it difficult to articulate what they mean, you can use probing questions to get the information that you need. For example, ‘You mentioned you didn’t enjoy working alone...’ ‘Why is this?’ or ‘How do you intend to change this?’

Funnel Questions: This is a way to gain information over a number of questions leading towards an outcome. You would start of with general, closed questions which lead to more open detailed questions, hence the name ‘funnel’. For example

‘Did you enjoy working within that department?’

‘How many people were in the department?’

‘Did you report directly to the Manager?’

‘What was it that you enjoyed about it?’

Leading Questions: These are not generally used in interviews as you want the candidate to offer their own thoughts, and leading questions are used persuade people to respond in the way you want. They are often used in sales atmosphere. An example of a leading question would be ‘So you would be happy to work weekends?’

Competency based Questions: These are becoming more and more popular to interviewers. They are designed to target a specific competency or skill by giving the candidate scenarios to relate their experience too. For example ‘Tell me about a time you had to deal with conflict in the workplace’ or ‘Tell me about a situation where you made a decision that influenced others around you’. These questions would be targeting leadership as a competency.

If you have more questions on techniques or would like more examples of competency based questions, please contact us, we are always happy to help clients re-structure their interview process.