Crafting interview questions with Work Personality insights

Ever sat through an interview and felt like you were pulling teeth trying to figure out if a candidate was the right fit? Or maybe you hired someone who seemed perfect on paper, only to realise a few weeks in, that they weren’t clicking with the team?

Hiring can feel like a lottery sometimes, but it doesn’t have to be.

By understanding Work Personality—the unique mix of traits that shape how people work—you can design interview questions that dig deeper. This approach ensures candidates aren’t just skilled, but also aligned with your team and culture.

Here’s how you can craft targeted questions that make every interview insightful, purposeful, and, dare we say, enjoyable.

Why work personality matters in interviews

Imagine knowing not just what someone can do, but how they’re likely to do it and why they approach work the way they do. That’s the real magic of Work Personality. It takes hiring from a skills-first checklist to a holistic evaluation, considering factors like teamwork, leadership style, adaptability, and problem-solving approaches.

When you focus on Work Personality in your interviews:

• You uncover fit: Skills can be taught, but fitting into a team and thriving in your workplace culture? That’s trickier.
• You avoid misalignment (and headaches later): Hiring someone who clashes with the team dynamic could lead to costly turnover.
• You fill gaps thoughtfully: By understanding your current team’s mix of traits, you can recruit someone who complements rather than duplicates what you already have.

Knowing a candidate’s Work Personality isn’t about psychoanalysing them; it’s about asking smarter questions that reveal how they’ll contribute meaningfully to your team.

How to design Work Personality-focused interview questions

Crafting these questions isn’t rocket science, but it does require some careful thought and a little prep.

Here’s the three-step process:

1. Define what the team needs

This step starts well before the interview. Assess your team’s Work Personality profile to identify strengths and gaps. Use tools like Compono Engage to gain insights into team structures, behaviours, and blind spots. Is your team brimming with leaders, but short on collaborators? Are there enough big thinkers, or are you overloaded with detail-oriented executors?

For example:

• Strength: Plenty of creative thinkers who generate ideas.
• Gap: Not many structured planners to turn those ideas into action.
• Goal: Hire someone with strong organising and follow-through skills who won’t stifle creativity.

With this clarity, you’ll shape questions to explore traits that address the gap.

2. Align to work personality traits

Once you’ve defined the ideal traits for the role, broader Work Personality categories can guide you. Traits like collaboration, leadership, adaptability, and resilience offer a strong starting point.

Think of these categories as the lens to focus your questions. For example:

• Collaboration (team fit): Is the candidate great at working with others, bouncing ideas around, and building consensus?
• Leadership (initiative): Can they take charge or rally the team when needed? What’s their leadership style?
• Adaptability (resilience): How well do they handle change, setbacks, or sudden challenges?

3. Ask targeted, revealing questions

Generic questions like “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” won’t cut it—in fact, they tell you almost nothing about Work Personality. Instead, ask situational or behavioural questions tailored to explore particular traits.

Here’s how you can reframe questions to uncover Work Personality insights:

For collaboration

Instead of asking:

“Do you like working in a team?”

Try:

“Tell me about a time you successfully worked with a group to achieve a goal. How did you handle differing opinions?”

Why this works:

It doesn’t just ask for a yes/no response. It requires the candidate to reflect on a real-world experience and reveal how they approach group dynamics.

For leadership

Instead of asking:

“What makes you a good leader?”

Try:

“Can you share a situation when you had to take charge without being asked? How did the team respond?”

Why this works:

This question spotlights initiative and gives insight into their natural leadership style—whether they inspire support or steamroll others.

For adaptability

Instead of asking:

“How do you handle change?”

Try:

“When was the last time a project took an unexpected turn? How did you adapt to keep things on track?”

Why this works:

It drills down into resilience and problem-solving, showing whether they turn challenges into opportunities or crumble under pressure.

For creativity and innovation

Instead of asking:

“Are you creative?”

Try:

“Describe a time you solved a problem with an unconventional solution. What was the outcome?”

Why this works:

This question draws out creativity in action, giving you a concrete example of innovative thinking.

Ensuring alignment during interviews

Once you’ve got your questions, the next step is learning how to interpret the answers. Look for behavioural patterns that best match your team’s missing piece. Remember, though, Work Personality isn’t about “good traits” versus “bad traits.” It’s about alignment. Even the most adaptable person might not thrive in a highly rigid environment. Likewise, an independent go-getter might clash in a team-first culture.

Here are some things to remember during the interview:

• Does the candidate’s style of working meet your team’s needs?
• Are there any red flags, like an inability to handle constructive feedback or excessive rigidity?
• Can you picture how they’d interact with your team members day-to-day?

When in doubt, turn back to your team's Work Personality profile for guidance.

How Compono makes this all easier

If this sounds more “science experiment” than a straightforward hiring process, relax.

This doesn’t need to be overly complex—especially if you’ve got the right tools on hand. That’s where Compono Hire comes in. It simplifies the process of understanding Work Personality by directly integrating it into recruitment.

You’ll not only identify gaps in your team, but also get tailored data on candidates, so you can confidently match the right person to the right role.

Compono Hire ensures you’re basing decisions on real insights rather than gut feel. And when you pair Hire with Compono Engage, you’ll have a 360-degree strategy for aligning both new and existing team members.

Make each hire count

Your next hire isn’t just filling a gap—it’s shaping your team’s future. By focusing on Work Personality, you gain the tools to hire confidently, ensuring each addition strengthens your team's harmony, creativity, and overall success.

Why settle for guesswork when you can make smarter, data-backed decisions?

Explore how Compono Hire can revolutionise your hiring process.

See how better people decisions start with clarity.

Talk to an expert and find out how Compono may be the smarter choice for your next growth phase.

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