3 questions to ask the current jobholder before you hire a new one 

Before you interview for your IT opening, there’s someone else you need to interview first: the current jobholder. After all, there’s no one who understands the position better than the person who’s currently doing it! Sure, you know what the job involves, and you understand what skills and qualifications are required to do the job successfully. But they know the highlights, the challenges, the most efficient ways to get things done – all of the things you’ll need to make sure the next employee is aware of when they take over. 

Here are 3 simple but insightful questions to ask the current jobholder before you interview the next:

1. What is your typical workday like?

Although you’ll have a fairly good idea of what the current jobholder does on a day-to-day basis, you may not know exactly when they work on each task throughout the day.

Make a note of their answer and work out how much variety there is throughout the day. You can then use this information to help you decide if the candidate is a good match.

For example, if the current jobholder spends half their day on one task and the rest of the day on another, you can ask the candidate if they feel that a lot of variety is important to them in their work. If they say that they are more suited to getting stuck into only one or two projects at a time, then they would likely enjoy and excel in the role.

2. What has been the least enjoyable aspect of the job?

This question will give you valuable insight into what is difficult about the role, what’s confusing, complicated, or even uninteresting.

When you’re interviewing your candidate, ask about what they don’t enjoy about their current job. Needless to say, if their least favourite tasks are similar to your current employees, you’ll need to make sure that the candidate is aware that the job opening involves these aspects.

You may also be able to discover if there are any particular tasks that the current jobholder feels would be more efficient to complete a different way, which is always handy to know.

3. Describe a time where you’ve had a problem to solve specific to your job – what you did you do to fix it?

With this information, you can put together a competency-based interview question where you can describe the same situation to the candidate and ask them to explain what they would do to overcome the problem.

As you know that the problem actually occurred within the role, you can be confident that the answer will be a good indication of how well the candidate would manage if they were hired.

We’re always happy to help you to get the most out of your interview process and find your perfect new IT professional. Give us a call on 0207 788 6600 for advice tailored to you.