We’ve all heard the old saying, ‘there’s no I in team,’ but how can you effectively evaluate the teamwork skills of a candidate?

Of all the skills and abilities to look for when hiring a candidate, finding a team player is perhaps the most important. Discovering someone who can work as part of a team can be critical to your business’s success.

What Makes a Team Player?

A team player is someone who does more than just ‘get along’ with their co-workers, they are:

• Highly adaptable and flexible in their business and personal roles
• Emotionally secure
• Service orientated in and outside of their jobs
• Focused on collaboration and understand that good ideas can come from any team member
• Communicative and open, willing to discuss their thoughts and concerns openly and without hostility
• Reliable, when they give you their word, you know you can count on it
• Looking for potential solutions when faced with a problem

Teamwork Questions

Feel confident you know what makes a strong team player? Let’s take a look at how to understand and evaluate a candidate’s teamwork skills with these four questions.

#1: Do you feel better when you are working alone or when working as a part of a larger team?

We all enjoy alone time, but a candidate who prefers solitude over interaction may not be the team player you’re looking to hire.

#2: Can you describe your ideal working environment level of interaction with team members? Tell me about the situation that you feel would experience the most success.

By asking a candidate to describe their ideal working environment and preferred level of teammate interaction, you’re getting a vital peek into how they work. A candidate who is eager to collaborate and communicate with others while working toward a common goal is demonstrating strong teamwork characteristics.

#3: Tell me about a successful project you were a part of. What was your role in the project? Why was the project successful?

If your candidate is quick to talk about his individual successes, and the clear relevance of his role, he’ll be better suited to a less team-focused role. But if he gives an account of the complete project highlighting overall successes and collaborative achievements, you’ve got a candidate who’s a team player.

#4: Describe a situation at work where you had to deal with conflict. How did you resolve the situation? (This may be client or colleague centric.)

At one time or another, we all have to deal with conflict in the workplace. Maybe you had a bad day or perhaps your co-worker did? Experiencing conflict is unavoidable but how a candidate deals with it can tell you a lot. If they speak of an instance of the past, with current anger or emotion, consider it a red flag. Emotional responses to workplace conflicts can signal someone with limited ability to work well in a group environment. But if your candidate recounts an event evenly and honestly, you know this person can step aside from their emotions for the sake of the team and move forward. And that’s a team player.

Assessing a candidate’s team player quotient can be tricky! If your company is growing and you need to be sure your next candidate is an active team player, let the specialized recruiters at Morris Bixby help you evaluate their talents. Their deep talent pools and far-reaching networks can help you find the most adaptable and solutions-oriented team players in the market.