The dynamics of talent recruitment is going through sea change with rapid advancements in technology contributing to the shift. Recruiting industry’s best sought-after talent needs an effective talent recruitment strategy to attract best candidates to be a part of the workforce. Interviews are no-longer restricted to one-sided communication, wherein the authority or the right to ask questions rests on the interviewer alone.

While it is a common industry best practice during talent selection, for the hiring team to ask critical questions to the interviewees to find the best most-suited talent for the position, the new-age workforce today would like to make informed choices when it comes to their career progression pathways and life as a whole. HR managers are still averse to the idea of an interviewee posing questions, and they do take such attitudes with a pinch of distaste.

However, new age talent hunters on the other hand appreciate such attitudes, when an interviewee poses questions to seek insights about the company before joining the team, since they believe answers can bring about clarity in decision making for the talent before accepting the job offer and avoid future regrets.

Candidates who ask questions to their future employers are considered to be proactive, driven and highly initiated to seek for the best workplace culture and career prospects. Deriving more information about the company post the rounds of interviews and before accepting the job offer, would only reduce scope for regrets and job satisfaction in the near future.

Here are some tough questions posed by interviewees, HR managers least or seldom expect. However, you have to prepared and aware to answer, if you want the best talent to join the brand wagon and assimilate in the workplace culture soon:

What is the single largest problem facing your staff?

Asking an interviewer about problems faced by the staff especially post the interview, needs some commendable audacity to pose such a tough question. However, now you got to answer and you cannot evade such queries to procrastinate answering at a later point in time, this can create sense of doubt and fear on the minds of new talent.

It is important for HR managers to come to terms with the fact that no organisation is free of workplace conflict or issues between staffers, but all this question meant was to arrive at a brief idea on the current staff challenges, in terms of workforce planning, delegation and coordination element in the team.

See: How Much Feedback is Right for an Employee? Too Much or Too Little?

With comments about problems within an organisation being widely-accessible by employees and new joinees on social media platforms, HR managers can no longer hide behind walls and think the employee knows nothing on the insider story and thus, falsify claims made by the current and past employees.

It is in the best interest of HR managers to observe tact and diplomacy when discussing challenging situations and issues at work. They can further make most of this opportunity to let the new hire know, the reason for hiring a new member in the team and how this talent’s contribution can make a difference and help resolve the current business challenges.

What have you enjoyed most about working here?

Such candidates are curious to know about employee morale in the workplace. Seeking answer to this question, helps the talent decide if the organisation has an effective workplace culture and fun environment to work for.

The hiring manager can choose being a bit elaborate when answering this question to talk about fun activities recently held, about the employee benefits, policies and recognition offered to the top performers that contributes to making a happy workplace.

However, HR managers should never talk about ideas that are yet to be implemented or have never really put to practice in the workplace. HR managers represent the face of company and any false information provided to a prospective candidate can have negative impact on the employer brand.

What are some current issues or those you foresee for the person filling in this position?

One of the toughest questions posed by an interviewee, this shows candidate’s eagerness to be a part of the job role while deriving insights about the future job. Positive response to this query would help them reflect and be mentally prepared to face forthcoming challenges in their job role.

This question further  presents an opportunity for HR managers to deliver expectations rightly set from the new joinees and how their ability to perform would determine their career progression pathways along with organisation’s growth.

Do you have any hesitation regards my qualification and experiences?

Measuring the candidate’s qualification generally cannot be done at the first meeting. However, if the hiring team shows reluctance about considering the candidate’s profile for further rounds of interview, then perhaps this question by an interviewee makes sense. It would only help the talent understand areas for improvement and if they are a right fit for the job role.

Answering couple of such tough questions posed by an interviewee requires tact, insights and knowledge to sustain interests from the best talent to join the company and be a part of the workforce.

HR managers should be very careful on what to say, areas to divulge and maintain discretion at all points of time. Never try avoiding to answer questions from an interviewee, for this can only create further doubt.

Read also: Leadership Challenge: Women Fall Behind Early and Continue to Lose Ground