7 interview questions every recruiter should ask candidates for a senior role — and the answers they should look for

• Recruiters hiring for senior-level positions must have keen judgment when interviewing candidates.
• An effective, streamlined interview process can help save a company time and money.
• Experts shared seven crucial questions hiring leaders should ask — and their ideal answers.
• This article is part of "Talent Insider," a series containing expert advice to help business owners tackle a variety of hiring challenges.

For hiring leaders at enterprise companies, asking the right interview questions is essential for successful recruiting.

An article from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania suggests the average hiring process lasts about a month, while for senior-level roles that timeline can extend to several months. Companies hiring top talent have estimated they spend three or four times a candidate's salary during the recruiting process. Having a streamlined process — especially for senior roles — can save companies time and money.

Four human-resources and business leaders shared some important interview questions to ask candidates vying for a senior-level position — and the most telling responses.

Asking the right interview questions is crucial

Candidates interviewing for senior roles may go through several rounds of interviews, which can take weeks or even months. Leigh Anne Wauford, the senior director of talent management at the marketing service PureRed, advised using scenario-based questions and establishing consistent tools for feedback.

"Trying to find efficiencies in the process while simultaneously bringing in the most qualified candidates has proven to be a juggling act," she said. "Some strategies to consider include increasing HR training on how to use more behavioral-based interview questions and implementing an interview guide and an evaluation scorecard."

Effective interview questions can also identify hard and soft skills and determine whether the candidate would add to the company's culture.

"Focusing too much on a checklist of achievements and technical skills rather than evaluating the candidate as a fully formed person is a major — and frequent — error," said Marc Cenedella, the founder of Leet Resumes, a résumé-assistance platform, and Ladders, a recruiting service. "Large businesses need to dig deeper than the résumé to determine specifically how this candidate has helped other organizations in the past and how those results could translate to their own company."

The interview questions should align with the hiring profile, which may need to be tweaked after a role has been vacated.

"The best advice for HR leaders at large companies is to stay completely current on your business strategy to ensure alignment between the strategy and the open roles," said Melanie Steinbach, the chief people officer of MasterClass. "Check in often with hiring managers to make sure that the original job specification is still relevant and make sure you are asking questions that line up with the business strategy."

7 effective interview questions

1. What interests you in the company?

"This is a fundamental question," Steinbach said, "but if a candidate doesn't know anything about the company they're interviewing with, that's a red flag."

Honesty is the best policy. If a candidate admits they don't know much about the company but mentions they've heard others speak highly of it and are eager to learn more, that's "a green flag," Steinbach said.

2. At this stage in your career, what are you looking for in your next opportunity? How does this role and the company culture align with your expectations?

"If they say they expect to be promoted within the next eight to 12 months and you know that your organization doesn't offer career planning or succession planning and that the person in the next-level role isn't planning to go anywhere anytime soon, the candidate's response would indicate that they might not be a good fit for the role," Wauford said.

"Green-flag responses are those that align with your company expectations of the role or what their direct supervisor expects."

3. Tell me about a time when you disagreed with a colleague and how you resolved the issue.

"This prompt provides information about the candidate's conflict-resolution skills and their ability to take accountability for any part they may have played in a problem," Cenedella said.

"When a candidate blames other people for conflict or project failures rather than taking accountability for the role they played in the situation, that's a big red flag. It can also be a red flag if they say they've never had any conflict. That either demonstrates dishonesty or passiveness."

4. Describe a specific example of how your work impacted your company's bottom line.

"When a candidate can't articulate the value they would bring to your business specifically, or if they don't understand the basic information about what your business does and who it serves, that's a big red flag," Cenedella said.

"A green flag is when a candidate can provide concrete, numbers-based examples of their prior experience and how they could do something similar at your company," Cenedella added. "Good candidates should understand your company and have a vision about where they would fit into it."

Steinbach also uses this prompt to gauge a candidate's collaborative and problem-solving abilities.

"I look to hear about their past work examples that correlate to the scenario and 'we' versus 'I' statements," Steinbach said. "Anyone who is too 'I' focused seems less open to collaboration, which can be a potential red flag, whereas those using a mix of 'we' and 'I' show they're collaborative and able to take accountability, which can be a potential green flag."

5. What attributes does your ideal manager possess?

"Recruiters should ensure that the candidate's response to this question closely represents the company's culture," said Maurice Wiggins, the head of global diversity, equity, and inclusion at Google. "If the candidate's responses align with current company leadership, companies will likely retain the employee over time based on the culture fit, which is critical to retention and reducing employee turnover."

6. What assistance do you typically receive from others you work alongside? How integral is having support and a shared workload to your success?

"If your organization runs very lean and employees must wear many hats, someone who is used to having multiple players that are responsible for a key part of the workload may not thrive in your company culture," Wauford said.

"What's most important during the hiring process is that there is clear communication about the needs and responsibilities of the role and how that role impacts the productivity of the team."

7. Do you have any questions?

"I also always leave time at the end of an interview for the candidate to ask questions, and I appreciate people who have put in thought and effort and ask questions beyond 'Tell me about your culture' or something else that's a bit generic," Steinbach said.

"A candidate can ask about the culture but do so in a way that shows effort, such as 'I saw on your LinkedIn page that your company did X, tell me more about that,' or something that shows they care about the company."