In a job interview I was asked, “What do your coworkers think of you?” My brain immediately went to a specific moment in my career when I was told by in ill-intentioned coworker some awful things my coworkers supposedly thought of me.  (Things I later learned were untrue.) I don’t think the interviewer wanted to know about my toxic workplace experience or see how I handled the strong emotions that were attacking my brain at that moment.  The interviewers wanted to know how I would influence the culture of the workplace they were cultivating.  As I talk with my peers, and read message boards in the nonprofit community, I am learning that many nonprofit professionals have some sort of negative experience, similar to mine. I have to wonder, why to do we continue to ask this question?  A question that may trigger these negative emotions for the candidate and doesn’t necessarily provide the information we are looking for. 

Designing interview questions is an art and we all have go-to questions that we believe give us the information that will help identify the perfect person to hire.  Beyond interviews, we ask questions all the time.  We ask others in our team questions to help complete projects, or for feedback to make sure we are providing the right tools.  We ask patrons about their experience with our organizations and donors about what they would like to see their money be used for.  We are trying to build diverse, equitable, inclusive communities within the organization and need honest feedback to be successful.  So, are we asking the right questions? 

Interview Questions

Crafting an interview question that helps identify the right person can have a long-term impact on an organization.  Ideally you don’t need to continually rehire, and this is the opportunity to get the right person in the right place. 

When I choose interview questions I think about

1. What are the skills/competencies that this person absolutely needs to be successful?  Are there skills that we can train the person for?  The job description can be helpful here. 
2. Do any of the questions lean towards a bias?  Think about gender and gender identity, age, economic background, national origin, race, etc…
3. How does this role contribute to the culture of the team, or entire organization?
4. Do any of my questions put the organization in danger of legal repercussions?  Particularly watch for questions that a too broad, and may solicit personal information about being a member of a protected class or medical history.  (i.e. spouse’s career, childcare arrangements.)

Also think about the environment that you are asking the questions.  Is it essential that you see the candidate come up with an answer on their feet? Can you ask them to arrive 10 minutes early and give them a list of questions so they can begin to formulate an articulate response? 

As an example, I have a question that I have asked for years on interviews for very specific reasons.  (Please note I generally advise against this type of question in favor of behavioral questions.)   I borrowed this one from a company I greatly respect, and the first time I asked it I had no idea how helpful it would be. 

“If you were a candy bar, what kind of candy bar would you be, and why?” 

For me the type of candy doesn’t matter.  I started using this question because I was hiring entry level, customer service staff members.  Ultimately, I liked it because it was so silly and the response of the person I was interviewing told me how they would respond to some of the more unusual situations.  I also wanted to know how well they listened and would respond to patrons.  Some candidates would immediately respond with their favorite type of candy, or their opinion of candy…something I had not asked.  Some of the more creative answers designed a new candy that had elements they thought reflected their personalities.

Questioning amongst coworkers

Karen Hurt and David Dye (June 2019) wrote an article entitled, “To Be Heard” for Talent Development magazine.  Specifically, they talk about the fear of speaking up.  We put the questions out there, but do we do it in a way that we get honest feedback.  Hurt and Dye equate fear of speaking up with the dynamic created between leaders, employees, and the organizational structure.  It isn’t just about asking the right questions, but also ensuring the culture exists the encourage truthful responses. 

Ticketing systems and CRM software seem to inspire ire from coworkers.  There is no perfect ticketing system or CRM, so ultimately you choose the best option for your needs and find ways to work around the aspects that are less desirable.  There are multiple opportunities for questions in this situation.  The first opportunity is when you are choosing new software, they best resource for what you need is the person that will be using the software every day, next you get to pose questions to the people that sell the software, and ultimately you want to know how the new software is working and what creative ways each individual has found to accomplish the tasks that the software isn’t designed well for.  At each one of these stages you have ask the right questions that open up the discussion. 

Garnering feedback from patrons

There are numerous ways to garner patron feedback.  I’m a big fan a qualitative information gained by utilizing listening posts and having conversations with patrons. This is a ripe opportunity to formulate the right question on the fly. 

Often the need for feedback is driven by fundraising and more quantitative data is needed. Foundations and other grant making organizations want evidence that the funds have been used to accomplish the goals stated in a grant application.  Donors want to see that their donation is being used responsibly and has an impact. A survey presents the opportunity to ask many people a set of structured questions. 

Once again, we need to make sure to ask the right question.  With surveys you can even choose the best way to get an answer.  Think about what the goal of garnering this information is. Ask focused questions that have specific answers.  Can this question be answered with a simple yes or no, how about multiple choice?  Would an interval, or scale be a way for the patron to better express themselves in a way we can measure?  Is the question helpful to us?  If not, do we need to ask it?

Take time to ask the right question.  With better questions we get better data.  We hire better people for our organizations.  We inspire better working environments.  We know more about the people we serve and their needs.  Now I challenge you to think about the times that you ask questions.  Can those be better.  Are they really asking for the information you need?