Relationship-Building Interview Questions

Communication, teamwork, and interpersonal skills are key aspects of building a great team. High-performing teams thrive when trust, rapport, and connection have been established between team members. As a result, relationship-building interview questions are becoming increasingly important in the modern recruitment processes.

Why are Relationship Building Interview Questions Necessary?

The people you hire should be additive to the culture of your company. This doesn't mean they're always expected to be bubbly and positive, but they should be able to demonstrate a solid understanding of forming and managing relationships in the workplace.

As an interviewer, when prepping for a candidate interview that highlights an applicant's interpersonal skills and relationship building, you'll need to come up with questions that really dig into how well they form and manage connections in the workplace. Crafting these questions is an art; they should go deep enough to bring out genuine responses about the candidate's past experiences and their style of working with others in teams and resolving conflicts. For example, asking about past experiences navigating tricky team dynamics is a good way to understand how they think through situations where conflict could arise.

Team-Building Interview Questions

Another way to assess this is by asking about communication styles among previous team members and how they bridged potential gaps to maintain a positive work atmosphere in a tough work situation. Candidates who understand how people communicate naturally will be able to navigate these tense situations and maintain healthy relationships with co-workers more effectively.

Once you have a few scenarios, you can create interview questions that will help you understand how the candidate would respond. Often, behavioral and situationally-based interview questions are a good way to structure these inquiries so they're focused and easier to answer.

Example Team-Building & Relationship-Management Interview Questions and Answers:

1. Describe a time you adapted your communication style to work effectively in a team. How did you approach it, and what was the outcome?

   Answer Example: In my past role, I was leading a team with members from different departments and communication styles. I noticed my direct communication style didn't click with some who preferred more detailed explanations. To adapt, I listened to the different ways people on my team communicated and tailored my approach to their needs: more detail for some, and brevity for others. This flexible approach improved team collaboration, leading to a successful project completion ahead of schedule.

2. Can you share an example of how you contributed to intentional team building in your previous role? Maybe through organizing regular team meetings, social events, or other activities designed to build relationships and strengthen team bonds.

   Answer Example: In a previous role, I started weekly "Happy Hour" gatherings post-work to boost team bonding. These informal sessions allowed team members to share stories, celebrate milestones, and connect beyond work. As trust and understanding grew, our collaboration and problem-solving skills improved noticeably.

The relationship-focused questions you ask should evoke a response that can be verified when you check their references. Did they really schedule a team Happy Hour? How long did it last? Did it fizzle out after a couple of weeks or become a regular occurrence?

Additionally, pay attention to non-verbal cues like body language and tone during the interview. Are they able to effectively communicate their experiences and demonstrate active listening skills? This is where interview intelligence software can make a huge difference by providing real-time interview insights into the candidate's responses.

Building Trust Interview Questions And Answers

Trust is everything in the business world. Customers won't make purchases if they don't like and trust the person or company they are buying from. Similarly, team members won't be motivated to work together if there is no trust between them. This is why building trust within a team and with customers is critical for any successful business.

As an interviewer, it's important to ask questions that assess a candidate's ability to network, build trust, and maintain strong relationships in the workplace. These questions can also give insight into how they would handle customer relationships, which is crucial for any role involving sales or client management. Here are some examples of building trust interview questions and answers:

1. How do you establish trust with your team members in a new work environment?

   Answer Example: In my experience, open and honest communication is key to establishing trust with team members. I make sure to listen to their ideas and concerns, keep them informed of any changes or updates, and always follow through on my commitments. This shows that I value their input and am reliable, which helps build trust over time.

1. Can you give an example of a difficult situation where you had to gain the trust of a customer? How did you handle it?

   Answer Example: In my previous position as a sales representative, I had a customer who was hesitant to make a large purchase from our company. I took the time to understand their concerns and address them with transparency and empathy. Through value-driven, consistent communication, I built a strong relationship with the customer and they eventually trusted me enough to make the purchase.

There are also different types of relationships for different roles. For instance, a Sales Representative may need to have networking and relationship-building skills that an Inside Sales person may not. If you were hiring both, you'd been a list of networking and relationship-building interview questions for your Outside Sales Rep, and customer relationship management interview questions for your Inside Sales Rep.

In either case, the interview questions you choose should accurately reflect the needs of the role. If you're unsure what questions to ask in an interview, click here and paste your job description to get personalized interview questions for your next interview.

Interview Questions About Collaboration And Teamwork

We briefly touched on the topic of team dynamics and collaboration in the last two sections, let's take a deeper dive into this one. Collaboration (especially on a remote team) is what gets things done. This is a core skill any remote employee should have. As an interviewer, it's important to assess an applicant's ability to work in teams and collaborate effectively. This not only helps ensure a successful hire but also promotes a positive and productive work environment.

Here are some examples of collaboration interview questions and answers to help you evaluate a candidate's teamwork skills:

1. How do you handle conflicts within a team? Can you give an example?

   Answer Example: When conflicts arise, I stay calm, listen to all perspectives (though it's challenging), and collaborate with the team to reach a compromise that meets everyone's needs. An example of this was during a project strategy disagreement. By communicating openly and working together, we found a solution that integrated all viewpoints and the client was more than pleased with our work!

1. How do you ensure effective collaboration on a remote team?

   Answer Example: I believe regular communication and clear expectations are key to effective collaboration on a remote team. I make sure to schedule regular check-ins with team members, set clear goals and deadlines, and provide updates on my progress. This helps keep everyone on the same page and promotes a sense of teamwork, even when working remotely.

Asking thoughtful and specific interview questions about collaboration and teamwork will help you gain insights into the candidate's care for co-workers, ability to work well with others, communicate effectively, and problem-solve without creating more conflict. Side note: If you're hiring roles that are customer-facing, you should also have a list of interview questions about building relationships with customers.

Remember that these questions should be structured and open-ended to gather insightful data to help you make a great hire. Utilizing tools like Pillar's AI-generated interview questions guide can help you save time and effort crafting the perfect questions for your next interview.

If you've struggled to create interview questions that net great hires, give Pillar a try. Our interview intelligence software comes with an interview questions library baked-in making interview prep effortless. After all, the goal is to make your job easier and help you hire top talent for your team! Happy Hiring!