There’s undoubtedly a lot of tradies in Australia who have the technical skills to get the job done to a high standard, but the top field service companies need people with an even wider range of talents. This is because the field service industry also relies on workers having a great set of social and interpersonal skills, helping them slot effortlessly into your company’s culture and provide high-quality customer service.
If you’re ready to move ahead with job interviews after putting together a list of tradies who are top-notch on the tools, we’ve highlighted some important sample questions to help you assess your candidates on a deeper level. This way, you can be certain your field service workers always represent your company to clients properly and give you a great foundation to grow into the future.
Cultural Fit
If you’ve grown your business from the ground up, there’s a good chance the entire thing has been underpinned by a set of values that mean something important to you. Whether that’s a level of customer service that you aspire to achieve or the kind of ethics you want your employees to have, you don’t want to compromise this vision by hiring the wrong person.
Cultural alignment is also a great benefit to a business as a whole. This is because workers are more likely to work harder and less likely to leave. In fact, 24% of workers say they are willing to quit their job if they find the workplace culture doesn’t live up to their expectations. Either way, you want to find out about cultural fit before investing in a hire.
Sample Interview Questions – Cultural Fit
- Tell me about the work environment in which you are the most productive?
- What expectations do you have of managers and co-workers?
- Why did you leave your last job?
- Why do you want to work with us?
Be careful when assessing cultural fit as you might end up discouraging diversity of thought. Find out whether workers are willing to learn and adopt your culture rather than if they align right now.
Behavioural/Situational Skills
Beyond their technical skills, field service recruits will also have to deal effectively with customers. Make sure your tradies know how to navigate any concerns by asking these questions.
Sample Interview Questions – Behavioral/Situations Skills
- A customer gets angry with you over the cost of a repair. How do you respond to them?
- Can you tell me about a time you delighted a customer, how you did it, and why you did it?
- Have you ever turned an unhappy customer into a happy one? Explain.
- How do you balance the need for speedy resolutions with safety?
You may also want to create common scenarios that tradies face in your industry, and ask them to walk you through how they would handle them.
Cognitive Abilities
Cognitive skills are necessary to process information, recognise patterns, analyse problems and develop solutions. The best field service technicians have strong cognitive skills, meaning they can swiftly diagnose problems and deliver solutions for customers. In short, your tradies should be great problem solvers.
Sample Interview Questions – Cognitive Abilities
- Describe a scenario and ask them to diagnose the problem, taking you step-by-step through their thought process.
- Tell me about a time you had to solve a problem, but didn’t have the information (or knowledge) to do so? What did you do?
- What do you do when you make a diagnosis, get the OK from the customer, make the repair and it doesn’t solve the problem?
- How would you handle it if you couldn’t meet the deadline on a project?
Another effective question is to ask how a candidate stays up to date on new trends and technology in your industry. You want tradies who know their stuff and have the curiosity to learn on the job.
Work Ethic
Field service employees often spend long hours on the job without their boss around to keep an eye on things. This means you want to make sure the tradies you hire can manage their time wisely and possess a strong work ethic.
Sample Interview Questions – Work Ethic
- How do you define work ethic and what does it mean to you?
- When things at work are slow or you’ve finished your work, what do you do?
- Tell me about a time you went the extra mile at work.
- Tell me about a time you felt overwhelmed at work and what you did about it?
Make Your Work Life Easier with FieldPulse
Asking the right questions when holding an interview ensures you hire tradies that fit your company culture, represent you well, solve problems faster and work hard. If they can do these things — and they have the technical skills you need — they’re definitely a strong candidate.
Considering how challenging it can be to run a successful field service business, making sure your team is chock-full of talented and reliable tradies will make all the difference. For even greater productivity, FieldPulse ensures your day-to-day operations are completed smoothly.
FieldPulse’s comprehensive business management app ensures you can keep track of customer information, schedule jobs, process invoices, chat with customers and much more. With less paperwork to worry about and the ability to do everything on the go, you can take your field service business to even greater heights.
Find out how FieldPulse can save you time, money and frequent headaches by scheduling a free demo today.
