Most Managers are looking for staff who can achieve, give the department good results, think on their feet, liaise at all levels, be assertive but not aggressive and so on.
How many Managers actually word their interview questions around the skills and personal attributes that are of the most importance for a particular role? If you do - great, you've probably got a successful, achieving team of happy staff working for you.
However, if you are wondering why your staff turnover is high, it might be an idea to consider your interview techniques or, even better, if your company can stretch to it, invest in an in-house Recruitment Manager – someone who will learn the ethos of your company, get to know the people already working there and further build your team with high calibre employees that fit in and achieve.
The retention of good Staff saves a company so much money. It is expensive to take on a new team member, to train them, to pay them while they are getting to know the ropes, getting to know and understand your precious customer/client-base, while they are getting over their teething pains. You don’t then want to lose them because they weren’t right for the job, didn’t fit in, couldn’t actually handle the stress and pressure they told you they ‘thrived on’.
During your interview, why not try a negative question too – they have told you what their strengths are, you have asked for an example of each individual strength within the workplace, which they have happily given you – they were prepared for that question!
Now ask them to give you an example of when it didn’t work. How did they handle that? How did they feel? What did they learn from it? How did they do it differently the next time? You will identify so much more about your interviewee than if you only ask for an example of when it did work (although you want to know that too, you want them to enjoy the interview and feel confident and relaxed).
You will learn if they can think on their feet (that will show in how they handle this specific question), if they actually dealt with the stress of not achieving at that time etc. You can learn so much by just gently teasing the interviewees out of their comfort zones, in a very kind and caring way. It doesn’t have to be a huge thing, just a strength they are pleased with that didn't work that one particular time – it will make them think on their feet.
Recruiting good staff is beneficial to you - you owe it to your existing staff too.