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The www is crawling with tips designed to help hopeful candidates nail their job interviews. But come on. How about some assistance for the people sat on the other side of the table?

Recruitment can be a sticky business. You have to be prepared to do everything you can to attract your dream recruits in this market. During the interview process, employers tend to forget that candidates are sometimes weighing up more than one job vacancy.

Enough theory. We asked seven business leaders their favourite questions to ask when interviewing candidates. From the comical to the canny, what they told us proves that - apart from being an oddly British obsession - each interview is unique for all involved.

Forget your scone-based food fantasies. There’s more to Devon than jam and cream. With excellent digital infrastructure, convenient travel links with London and Birmingham, a top university supplying a steady flow of bright-eyed graduates and some of the most beautiful coastal and countryside scenery in the UK, it’s little wonder local business leaders are so proud to call this part of the West Country home.

Lots of SMEs are slow to hire HR professionals. There’s a perception that HR recruitment is a low priority; that the money would be better spent filling vacancies that have a more ‘tangible’ impact on productivity. Unfortunately that perception could be holding your business back.

When your business is buckling under the weight of its own workload, you may feel the urge to hire. But taking on new employees is not your only option.

Exeter had the tenth highest growth in private sector jobs in the UK last year, a new report has revealed. The Centre for Cities Outlook 2018 report shows an increase of 3,000 jobs in Exeter – a 5.1% increase on the previous year.

There are lazy stereotypes. Then there are really lazy stereotypes. Many folk would have you believe that a career in accountancy is about as exciting as the hum of a fridge.

Just 9% of the engineering workforce is female. In HR, only one-in-five staff is male. There are plenty more examples of professions where gender imbalance is rife. So what is it about these professions that seems to predetermine which gender is most likely to work in it?

Sharper increases in permanent placements: There was a marked rise in permanent placements in January, with the rate of expansion highest since April 2015. In contrast, growth in temp billings softened to a 10-month low

Permanent placements expand at softer, but still marked, pace: Permanent staff placements continued to rise across the UK in February. Though sharp, the rate of expansion moderated slightly since the start of the year. Temp billings meanwhile rose at a faster pace midway through the first quarter.

When it comes to interview questions for managers, knowing what to ask isn’t always straightforward. The stakes are high. But with our ideas, you can’t go wrong.