Yesterday, we learned that 46% of new hires fail within 18 months of joining a company.

These failures are expensive, frustrating, and disruptive to your team, but researchers found that many of the failed hires can be avoided by better assessing coachability, emotional intelligence, motivation, and temperament during interviews.

Of the 5000 hiring managers evaluated, 812 managers experienced significantly more hiring success than their peers because of their emphasis on interpersonal and motivational issues.

So how do you put more focus on these issues during an interview?

Here are some questions you may want to start asking:

Coachability. Can you tell me about a previous coach or mentor who had a significant effect on your performance? How did this person help you get better?

Motivation. What is the compelling reason you want to succeed as a real estate agent? What will happen if you fail?

Temperament. Can you tell me about a time when you felt like you were not a good fit on a team or work group? Was the problem you or the group?

Emotional Intelligence. This is more complex.  For more detail, read my previous Insight on this topic.  The most important component of emotional intelligence is self-awareness.  Take a minute to read how to detect self-awareness during an interview (includes questions to ask).

These interview questions and techniques will shine light on these important issues, but they may not get you to a clear hire/reject decision.

To get to that decision, immediately score the interview (scale of 1 to 5) in each of these categories.

The scores will help you quantify what seems to be nebulous and set a standard for making better hiring decisions.