Questions to Ask When Interviewing and Hiring for Integrity

Integrity is important in every business (unless, I suppose, you’re part of the mob, but even then there’s a code to follow), but you could argue it reaches critical importance in the restoration and cleaning industry. Our teams are inside homes and businesses every day, filled with thousands of dollars in valuables, and charged with caring for the property of others as if it were our own. Therefore, hiring someone who lacks integrity is an absolute no-go.

Gauging a candidate’s character can be difficult unless you know the right questions to ask. These questions can also help you hone in on a candidate’s leadership ability, work ethic, and other important factors you want to know about someone before hiring them to be part of your team.

Here are some questions to add in to your next interview:

1. What would you do if an employee was caught stealing?
2. When was the last time you broke the rules – what did you do, and why did it happen?
3. On that note, do you believe it’s OK to break the rules sometimes? If so, when and why?
4. Tell me about a time when someone questioned your trustworthiness or integrity. How did you handle the situation?
5. What would a current or past boss say made you so valuable to their team?
6. When you’ve lost trust in someone you work with, how do you handle that and try to renew and repair the relationship?
7. Is it every OK to lie to a client, even if it’s a “white lie”?
8. Our company is very much a team environment. What values do you appreciate most from a cohesive team?

In each of these questions, be listening for key words and phrases having to do with honesty, fairness, transparency, openness, and so on. When talking about themselves and their skillset, it is ideal that a candidate discuss their character and not just the physical skills they have to perform the job. There are a whole lot of project managers out there, but not all of them have the integrity level needed for restoration. The same goes for any position in our industry.

If a candidate does not have integrity, they are very simply not someone you can trust, and therefore not someone who is going to be a good fit for your company. Be sure not to get too enamored by a resume or skillset without really digging into who an individual truly is.

If you want a little extra help identifying who a candidate truly is, consider adding DISC assessments to your hiring process. These are easy-to-take assessments that accurately identify a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, and gives you a full report on their qualities and areas they could improve.