Recently a client and I were speaking about a role that had been created due to the expansion they had experienced and the subject of employing the right person first time came up. Now I know this is a massive issue to every business out there and there are many approaches taken in order to try and maximise the chances of getting this right. There is the old school recruitment approach using an agency you trust to deliver the right candidates, the psychometric approach, the group interview, the workshop and so on and yet none of them are full proof or actually when all is said and done no better than each other.
So as the conversation about which approach my client should take went on I was asked how I would do it if it was me and this got me reviewing not just the past interviews I had conducted but all those that I had been through as a candidate as well and what had worked and why it hadn’t when it all went disastrously wrong.
During my career I have been subject to or have utilised most of the approaches above and through reflection I decided that actually all of those approaches either just handed me the right candidate in terms or skills or capabilities possibly with the right attitude in the case of the psychometric approach or had had me sit in front of a potential employer where I had the right skills, capabilities and or attitude that they were seeking and yet sometimes it worked and sometimes I was looking to replace them after three months or didn’t take the job even if it was offered.
So how about when it did work, who did I pick if I had three people all with similar skills and experience and from the other side how did I get the job offer when I was up against others with similar and sometimes more extensive experience?
Well I think once the issue of the requisite skills for the job are covered it’s simply a case of who you would work best within a team, who in essence do you like the most? Now that’s a little woolly for my way of thinking so to nail it down a little more I think it’s all about shared values, those things that are at the core of who you are whether it’s honesty, integrity or optimism the really good teams, employees and employers always share the same common values.
So when you are next interviewing people and you have used your competency based questions to check your candidate has the required skill and experience to do the job spend the rest of your time talking about values, what are they how does your candidate match up to your business values and just as importantly to yours and the potential teammates values.
Now it’s not quite as easy as it sounds though, discovering the values of people who sometimes haven’t ever vocalised they own values can be challenging yet asking things like “tell me what really annoys you and why” or “what is more important honesty or empathy” can help, all you really need do is ask questions that will highlight how someone feels about your values as if you employ someone no matter how good they are with values in opposition to you then it’s very likely you will be interviewing for the same position again in the near future.
