Ever make a bad hire? Ouch. Me too.
Even when I ask all the right functional interview questions and have candidates who look good on paper, I can
still miss the mark. What am I not doing? Turns out that I overlooked empathy in the hiring process.
Wait. Is this going to be a squishy blog about feelings? Not exactly, because empathy goes beyond simply expressing feelings.
Empathy is understanding another person’s feelings or situation and imagining what it might be like to experience these things yourself.
Empathy is not the same as sympathy. Sympathy acknowledges another person’s problems or feelings, empathy takes it deeper to actually feel them.
So how does empathy fit into my interview questions?
Like other competencies, skills and behaviors, empathy can be assessed during the interview process. Asking interview questions like those below can help to measure the empathy level of a candidate.
Describe a time when you had to deliver difficult news. How did you go about it?
Empathy is defined as the ability to understand, identify, and share the feelings of others. Look for the level of adaptability in their response. A strong candidate will be able to comprehend the situation and adjust their response based upon how the message is received.
What do you do when someone comes to you with a problem?
The purpose of this question is to evaluate the candidate’s ability to listen to a problem and use their reasoning ability, judgment, and problem solving skills to address the issue. A candidate who takes defense and directs the blame to someone else is a red flag. A truly empathetic candidate will listen to the problem, ask questions, and make an informed recommendation on how to address the issue.
Tell me about the last time you got angry at work. How did you deal with your anger?
Asking about anger in the workplace helps evaluate a candidate’s ability to deal with conflict. Find out why they got angry, what they did in response to that anger, and how it turned out in the end. A strong, empathetic candidate will recognize their conduct, take responsibility, and work to make a bad situation better.
Interview questions like these give you different information about the candidate – beyond how they meet the job’s functional requirements.
Think about it. Most new hires can learn how to work in a new system, but not all can consider the perspectives and feelings of managers, customers, and team members. That’s where empathy can make all the difference – anticipating, adapting, and accelerating collective success.
