Hiring employees who enhance your culture

We’ve recently undertaken a graduate survey to find out what kind of things young people are looking for when they start on the career ladder, and the results are really interesting. It’s not all about the money, and it just confirms what we have been saying for a while about having something more to offer candidates other than an attractive pay packet. We are still conducting the research but when it’s available to share we will be forwarding it to all our contacts.

Here’s some interesting stats which I recently came across regarding the recruitment and interview process:

·        80% of candidates would choose one role over the other because of the personal relationship built during the interview.

·        The average job seeker reads 6 reviews on a company before making an informed decision about the role on offer.

·        55% of job hunters trust content shared by an employee and 68% of candidates believe current employees offer the best insight into working in a role.

So this just goes to show that you have to be honest and clear with your candidates about what you are offering and if you make promises in the job brief or the interview, you need to stick to them. One of the biggest reasons why people leave a job within the first 6 months is because the day to day aspects of the job was nothing like the one originally advertised!

When you are preparing your job brief or considering the type of candidate you want to apply for your roles think about personality and attitude traits as well as those key skills. What kind of person are you looking for? If you have an outgoing team, would you really want to consider somebody who is shy and introvert? This can help you formulate the types of questions you need to be asking in the interview.

If you want to enhance your company culture, you need your employees to be champions for you and to contribute to its long-term growth and success. You need to be looking for people who can reflect your key values and who can flourish in your company’s culture. As we’ve said before, you can train your employees for job skills, but having the right attitude for your culture is very hard to be taught!

Here’s a few good questions you could be asking in the interview to get an idea of somebody’s values and personality:

1.      Tell me about a time when you have helped a colleague to improve?

2.      Give me an example about a time you stood up for something you believed in?

3.      Tell me about a time when you had a great sense of accomplishment?

4.      What goals have you set yourself for the next 12 months?

And don’t forget your current employees! Foster and nurture your team and encourage leadership internally. Challenge your employees and offer them development opportunities – it will help them to progress and flourish. You might be advertising externally for a Sales Manager but you might have the perfect candidate right under your nose already!