In defence of the 'psycho babble' questions, they are not designed to test your intelligence, they are designed to test your personality/attitude, and the reason they ask the same thing over and over is that people like you guys try and get around them and "fuck with their heads". Repeating the questions ensures they can get a measure of consistency. There is also a lot of evidence that they are effective, provided you know in advance what personality/attitude is going to work best for you.

As somebody that has done a lot of employing of staff over the years I have learnt from experience that a vigorous interview process is going to give you a higher chance for a better outcome. People can interview well and be terrible employees, so there is no guarantee though.

As for employees turning up late, I had a staff member that used to rock up to the office about 8:45-9am when the rest of us were there from either 8am or 8:30. One of the other managers used to complain about her being late and my response was always that I didn't care, providing she was putting in the hours and getting the work done. She was always there later than the rest of the employees. It would be a different story if it was a role that meant her not being there affected the level of service customers received, but it wasn't.