For small business owners, the decision to add people to your team is an important one that should not be entered into lightly. Adding personnel to a small business is a major financial investment and it also has the potential to have a major impact on the direction your company is likely to take in the future.

One of the many things that you need to look for when interviewing candidates is information in just how interested the person is in working for your company. It’s not unusual for people who are looking for jobs to take any suitable position, while they keep working for the perfect job opportunity to come along. When you hire someone who’s taking a position with your company just to “get by” until something better comes along, you’re brining in a team member who has one foot out the door on his or her first day of work.

When you hire someone who views employment with your company as just a springboard to something else, you’re not likely to keep the individual for very long, and he or she certainly isn’t going to be fully committed to your company. This means that the person you’re investing time and money into training probably isn’t going to be with you for very long. While you can’t always tell how a candidate views the opportunity with your company, there are some steps you can take to help you figure out his or her perspective.

Ask: Why do you want to work here?
It’s certainly important, for example, to ask applicants why applicants want to work with your company. It’s also essential to really listen to what they say. The answers you receive can help you determine if candidates have a particular interest in working with your organization or in your industry, or if they have a burning desire to work with a startup business.

The answer you get might also help you figure out if you’re working with someone who’s looking for “just a job” or someone who’s looking for an organization that he or she can stay with for the long haul. Sometimes you’ll learn that candidates have absolutely no clue what it is that your company does, which can be a sign that they didn’t spend any time looking into your company before the interview. If that’s the case, you may need to question if they truly have an interest in your organization.

It only makes sense that people who are looking for a career opportunity are going to spend a little bit of time checking out any organization they’re interviewing with ahead of time. That’s why asking a question like this can help you figure out whether or not you’re hiring someone who is likely to enter the job with a level of commitment and honest intentions of making a go of the opportunity to work with your small business.