We all know cultural fit is key to a successful long-term hire, but how do you ensure the candidates you’re talking to are the right fit for your organisation and team?

Here are our 6 favourite interview questions to assess cultural fit:

1. What did you enjoy most (and least) about your previous role?

Really listen to what the candidate did and did not enjoy in their previous roles and assess these against your own organisations and the position you’re considering them for. Are their work preferences aligned with what you’re offering?

2. What attributes and values do you look for when applying to an organisation?

Assess their wants, needs and values against those of your organisation and the position on offer.

Are flexible working arrangements important to them? Is this something you can offer?

Are they looking for career growth? Does this align with your organisational structure and what you can realistically offer?

3. If you could design your ideal work day in this role, what would it look like?

This is a great way to get a sense of how they would like their day to be structured and what their understanding is of the day-to-day requirements.

Is their ideal day working from home? Is that a possibility? Are they ideally after a position that’s back office focused but the role on offer is customer facing? (this is a common one!)

4. What surprises other people about you?

This question allows you to get to know the candidate on a more personal level and helps you to understand how they are perceived by others. You may also find that they reveal something that they have not mentioned previously.

5. What is the best way for a manager to support you to succeed in your new role?

This is a great question to gain an understanding of whether your own management style will be a good fit for this person. If they are communicating to you that they like to have lots of support and guidance and you’re someone who prefers to leave people to work autonomously, perhaps it’s not the best fit.

6. How would you describe the workplace culture at your last job? What would you change if you could?

What did they enjoy and what did they not enjoy about the culture? How does that fit with the culture at your workplace? Do they seem to be reasonably adaptable? or are they overly critical and have expectations that you might not be able to meet?

6 Interview Questions to Assess Cultural Fit

Mansfield & Co Recruitment