When you’re hiring IT staff, obviously you need people with the right technical skills. But other factors, like people skills or business knowledge, are also key. Here are some things to ask in an interview to keep those soft skills in focus.

One problem IT staffers can have is dealing with people. But let’s face it, for a lot of positions, that’s part of the job. Interview questions should keep that in mind. For example, a good interview question might be: “Tell me about a difficult person you’ve dealt with recently, and how you handled the situation.”

You can keep probing on that question to find out ways the candidate deals with end users, peers, managers, etc. Also, you might ask other general questions about times they’ve run into workplace conflict.

Business skills are becoming more important in IT, too. If that’s something the open position will require, a good question might be: “What would you do if you made financial estimates for a project, and the person approving the funding thought they were inaccurate?”

You might also want to ask what candidates know about your industry. They don’t need to be experts, but they should at least have something to say. That’ll let you know they’re willing to learn more about the general business.

Tags: interviews, IT employees, soft skills