Communication skills play a vital role in any business’s success. A good communicator can help a business reach its goals and boosts the business’s overall productivity. Therefore, it’s crucial to ask interview questions to assess/test the communication skills to determine whether the candidate is the right fit for your organization.

Hiring a candidate who lacks communication skills will affect your business’s productivity and create a negative work environment. You should hire someone who is positive, confident, and prefers a collaborative approach in the workplace.

Assessing communication skills will also give you a deep insight into how a candidate establishes their relationship with co-workers and how they face and overcome challenges. The ability to communicate well is necessary not for being productive but also for creating a positive work environment.

No matter what role you’re hiring for, assessing communication skills should be your priority. Asking interview questions to assess/test communication skills will give you a clear picture of the candidate’s working style and how they react in different situations.

Communication questions will help you identify the following skills of a candidate:

• Leadership skills
• Time-management skills
• Problem-solving skills
• Leadership
• Initiative
• Self-management

That said, this article will discuss some of the most significant interview questions to assess/test a candidate’s communication skills to help you determine the right fit for the culture.

Give A Brief Introduction About Yourself.

This is the first question that you must ask a candidate in an interview. It will allow candidates to describe their qualities and how they are different from other candidates. You can expect a candidate to share their experience, educational background, and other positive qualities.

This question will help you understand both the positive and negative aspects of the candidate. It also reveals how realistic and honest a candidate is.

Tell Me About Your Relationship With Co-Workers In Previous Organizations.

This question is especially important when you’re hiring for a senior-level position in your organization. It will reflect the candidate’s relationship with their colleagues and how they can lead a team.

A candidate must prefer a collaborative approach in the workplace. Working with others requires strong communication skills, so individuals who enjoy working in collaboration often can effectively communicate.

How Do You Manage Conflicts In Your Workplace?

When interviewing candidates, you must gather as much information as possible about their performance in their previous organization. This question will help you determine the candidate’s working style and how they can communicate a situation of disagreement.

Apart from communication skills, this question will give you a deep insight into a candidate’s interpersonal skills. You can expect a candidate to share the story of a conflict in their previous organization and how they handled it.

Why Are You Leaving Your Current Employer?

Most candidates find such questions ‘tricky,’ and they often hesitate to answer this question. A candidate might discuss conflicts with their colleagues, bad management, unattractive salary package, etc. A candidate who talks badly about their former supervisors will not be the right fit for your organization.

Instead, a candidate must be positive while answering this question which will reflect their honesty and determination.

How Do You Face And Overcome Challenges?

This is one of the essential interview questions to assess/test a candidate’s communication skills, which reveals the interpersonal and delegation skills of a candidate. A good communicator knows how to get the work done by allocating it to team members.

It will help you understand your potential candidate better and give you a real sense of their working style and priorities.

What Do You Choose: Work Independently Or In Collaboration?

If you’re looking for a position requiring employees to work in a team, you must consider asking this question when interviewing the candidates. In such cases, if a candidate chooses to work alone, then you’re interviewing the wrong candidate.

This is an opportunity to get a sense of the candidate’s character and self-knowledge.

Why Are You A Good Fit For This Job Role?

This question allows candidates to show off their skills and what sets them apart from other candidates. As a recruiter, you will get an idea of a candidate’s confidence level and whether their confidence is helpful.

5 Communication Skills To Look For In A Candidate

Communication skills are of different forms, and you must ensure that a candidate possesses all of them to ensure productivity at the workplace.

Listening Skills

Before being a good communicator, a candidate must be a good listener. Most people don’t listen, and they speak before actually understanding the situation. Hiring a good listener in a workplace is crucial as they will show interest in what others are saying and answer the questions effectively.

Respect

Candidates respect interviewers a lot during the interview session, but it doesn’t mean they will show the same respect to their co-workers. If a candidate can’t respect their team members, they are not a good communicator. To create and sustain a positive work environment, hiring someone who respects their colleagues is essential.

Emotional Intelligence

A candidate with high emotional intelligence can understand social behaviors and easily handle conflict between employees. Things that make up emotional intelligence are as follows:

• Self-Awareness
• Self-Regulation
• Social Skills
• Motivation
• Empathy

Body Language

A candidate’s body language speaks a thousand words about a candidate. It will give you insight into what a person is thinking and feeling, confident or nervous, open or close, and much more.

Behavioral Skills

If a candidate is over-confident or seems too eager to please, then it’s a big no. You should hire someone willing to work with others and learn new skills. However, if a candidate never listens to others and thinks they are always right, then such candidates can cause conflict in your workplace.

Communication skills are essential to boost the business's overall productivity. As a recruiter, you must look for someone who creates a positive work environment and not someone who promotes conflicts among the employees.

The above-mentioned interview questions to assess/test communication skills will give you a clear picture of the candidate’s interpersonal and behavioral skills.