20 Questions Leaders Should Ask Themselves Before Hiring Employees

“Few leaders seem to recognize the full impact of how the employment market has shifted. If you think the only shift in the market is having to pay more for similar roles, then you have missed the real change.”

  – Peter Beaumont

The people market has changed. The national unemployment figure is between 3.4-3.6%. Here in Minnesota, it’s around 2.2%. It’s been a seller’s market for some time, and few employers seem to recognize that the shift is more than just having to pay more for positions than they previously did.

If you think the only shift in the market is having to pay more for similar roles, then you have missed the real change. The biggest shift I would suggest is people’s expectations of a role and of the company offering it.

Work-life balance and culture have become really important to people looking for a new role and are the prime reasons for wanting a change. Working with people and companies is something that people want to look forward to and having fun is an important part of the equation.

In interviewing over 30 candidates recently for two clients, over 70% of them declared they were prepared to take a cut to work in a better environment.

These thoughts came rapidly into focus recently when I was discussing and coaching my daughter, a borderline millennial and a senior at the University of Minnesota. She was asking for help on some of the questions she should be asking potential employers. We discussed how important it is that interviews are not one-sided and that the interviewee gets to find out about the prospective company, their culture, and their overall approach to their employees.

I found myself crafting some questions for her and she has used several of them in different interviews, depending on the role and the potential employer. I built in some overlaps and similarities so they could be asked in different ways.

My question to you (as a leader and employer of people) is, “Are you or your managers prepared and have answers to all of these?”

1. Do you have HiPo (High Potential Employee) program in place? How do you identify high performers and then groom and improve them for more responsibility?

2. What systems and processes are in place to help employees with great potential to advance?

3. Do you have Core Values in place and how do you measure if people are ‘walking the talk?”

4. How much flexibility is there around being present in the office? What’s the company’s view on a hybrid system?

5. Is there an opportunity for this role to be hybrid or remote at some stage?

6. What benefits are offered to employees; medical, vacation time, PTO?

7. What would a typical day look like in this role?

8. If I was successful in this role, how would you assess and explain what success looked like at the end of the first year?

9. Is there room for someone in this role to be heard with a POV?

10. What would a successful candidate deliver for you in year 1?

11. What would you see as a career path for someone at this level?

12. Apart from an immediate supervisor, do you have a mentoring program?

13. How would you rate your company culture out of 10 and how do you build and maintain it?

14. What sort of culture are you trying to build and nurture?

15. Do you have measures in place to see if you are being effective?

16. What sort of initiatives are in place to build the culture the company would like?

17. What’s the retention rate in the company on a yearly basis?

18. Do you conduct surveys to see how happy your employers are?

19. How would you rate your company on employee engagement and how do you substantiate that?

20. What measures do you have to evaluate employee engagement?

…if you can’t answer these questions, and you want to hire good people, I suggest you and your team discuss and make sure you can answer them by making changes to your organization. Your company’s future may depend on it.

Peter M. Beaumont is the Founder and Principal of ConnXN Consulting and is a Leadership & Organisation Accelerator as well as a Success Authority. He is also the author of The Relationship Roadmap, a comprehensive guide to building relationships with strategic clients.