Change-Oriented Hiring Interviews

Have you used the hiring interview as an opportunity to carefully assess how change-resilient the candidate is? Have you specifically ascertained whether the candidate will demonstrate desirable attitudes and behaviours as your organization continuously exposes him or her to the trials and tribulations of workplace change?

Most managers and HR professionals will answer “no” to both of these questions. A few may answer: “Yes, we ask people how they’ve dealt with challenges involving change in the past and we extrapolate from there”.

When it comes to assessing change resilience, these responses just aren’t good enough. Dealing with large and small changes requires people to avoid the traps of negativity, mistrust, victimhood and disengagement.

Here are some “change resilience” questions to ask in a hiring interview, along with some thoughts regarding the answers to look for:

  • What kinds of changes did you encounter in your last position?
  • What’s your perspective on how the organization’s leadership handled the change? (If candidate says that the leadership handled it wonderfully – be sceptical and probe deeper. There has yet to be a leadership that does not make some meaningful resilience-eroding mistakes when managing change, especially as experienced from the employees’ vantage point).
  • What change did you find most difficult? Why? (Look for honest answers that indicate that the person experienced the trap of negativity or victimhood and how they handled themselves. Negativity is something that practically everyone experiences but resilient people pull themselves out of it quickly).
  • When you encountered the negativity of others regarding the changes, i.e. things they said and rumours that circulated, how did you handle that? (Look for responses that demonstrate that the candidate was able to distance themselves from negative people and rumours).

Can you provide us with an example of a particular change initiative that you thought was problematic and how you handled your reservations? (You’re looking for someone who was able to express their concerns to their superiors in a constructive way).

  • When changes were going in directions that you didn’t agree with, did you ever consider leaving? (You’re looking for a “yes, I did leave”, or “yes, I was working on my CV”‘. It’s better to hire someone who, when they don’t like what’s going on, will pick up and leave rather than `resign and stay’ in chronic disengagement!)

These types of questions will help you determine how your candidate will handle change in your organization.

You may be surprised at what you hear. One of my clients used these suggestions and discovered with great dismay that the preferred candidate, who had made a great impression overall, was surprisingly venomous when caught off guard on this topic. To the question “How did you deal with changes in your previous workplace?” she responded, “Well, I’ve learned from my previous jobs that you just have to live with the fact that management never tells the truth and basically doesn’t cares about the employees”.

If one of your preferred candidates responded like that, would you give her the job?

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