Interviews: Can They Predict Performance and Behavior?

At some point, virtually every small business owner needs to hire someone... a vendor, an employee, an accountant... when I think back on my 25-year career (35 years if you count jobs before graduating from college), I've been interviewed a lot more times than I've interviewed someone. From what I've read, this is pretty typical.

It's not surprising, then, that we all feel a little bit of anxiety in the interview process. Are we asking the questions we need to ask? How do we really know if the person will perform well... or fit into our company culture... or possesses the basic skills to do the job?

I have some "favorite," if not off-the-wall, questions that I ask in interviews. I mean those beyond the standards that most interviewees prepare responses for in advance. Questions that I think help me to understand the candidate's motivations on a deeper level. Some of these include:

• If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, for any length of time, and money were not an object, where and how long would you go? What would you be doing?
• What are you passionate about? When are you the most content? What makes you angry?
• Let's say I offer you this job and the next day you find out you have three months to live. Will you still want the job? If so, why? If not, what would you rather be doing?
• How do you define customer service? Give me an example of a time when you received/provided exceptional/unsatisfactory service.

Can interviews really help you know what kind of employee the person will be? What are some of the techniques, questions and processes that you use to minimize the risk of hiring someone who is not a good fit?