The #1 thing to ask candidates to evaluate culture fit and teamwork
The #1 thing to ask candidates to evaluate culture fit and teamwork is to ask them to walk you through a time where they had a major conflict, and how they worked to resolve it. Here are some red flags:
1/ You’ll get the brilliant jerk that then spends the next 30 minutes talking about how right he/she is, never acknowledging the other perspective
2/ You’ll get the person that summarizes the conflict, and chooses to ignore it, electing to change teams, or to escalate directly to a manager
3/ You’ll get the person that has “never been through a conflict” before
What you’re looking for is folks that are willing to sit down with the other person, ask questions, LISTEN to the other side, and then work towards a mutual agreement.
The “how” people work through problems together is what makes great teamwork, great teamwork maximizes your chance of building a strong culture, and strong cultures outlast products and companies.
One other school of thought here is that some folks have never learned Conflict resolution and may not give a good answer but are coachable + very good on the skills.
3 Reasons that the conflict could have not been resolved
1) Conflicts are one-sided and the person may not have much 'leverage' to continue the status-quo. To upset the condition and to enable the team to continue meant to side step correct course of action
2) the Manager only focussed on manage by objectives, in that case blind faith in resolving issues by meeting targets with no vision lead to apathy.
3) The Organisation values growth over values and allows for the better fit via conflict rather than co-operation. No points to guess how cutthroat the service industry gets.