Hiring employees that aren’t the right fit is costly for your business. There are the costs of recruiting and training, as well as the cost of revenue lost due to productivity loss. As a business owner, large or small, you want to find employees that will be the right fit.
Today, more companies are focusing on hiring people that are considered the right “cultural fit”. When you find employees with the right fit, it is more beneficial to both employee and employer. Employees will be more satisfied and engaged. Additionally, employers will benefit from higher employee retention rates and will be able to save money once they reduce their employee turnover.
While more companies are recognizing that the right cultural fit is important, it is something that can be hard to define. Like anything else, there is good and bad to hiring for a cultural fit. The downside is that it can be easy to lead with unconscious biases and create an organization that does not offer much diversity.
This is where a hiring firm can come in handy. You can count on Solvo to remain unbiased while still finding employees that are the right fit, and also ensure a diverse workforce within your company.
How We Find Employees That Are the Right Fit
Define Your Company Culture
We strive to provide you with the best candidates for the job. But, you need to know your company’s culture. This will put us one step closer to providing you with optimum satisfaction. We understand what cultural fit is and what it is not. We understand that it doesn’t mean that we need to hire people similar to those who already work for you. We understand that it does mean that you want employees with the same drive. These are employees that are on the same page and who will share your company’s goals and values.
We keep sight of the important things that are necessary for finding the employee with the right fit for your needs. When you are doing the hiring yourself it is easy to want to choose an individual that you get along with. We will instead focus on your workplace culture and if the candidate will add to your current team. While you may be tempted to feel that someone with a different approach (or personality) is not a good cultural fit, this is often an incorrect assumption. Hiring a candidate that has a fresh approach or who excels in a different communication style can be a positive for your company. These persons can help the team think differently and may cause an overall strengthening of an entire team of employees.
At Solvo, we strive to understand your company’s goals and values. This comes in handy when we’re interviewing potential candidates as we’ll know what to look for and who will be a great fit.
Identify Key Factors
Key factors are also known as the KSAs – Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. These are the key traits the ideal candidate must have to be able to perform job tasks. Companies need to have job descriptions that incorporate these KSAs. We often find companies with job descriptions that are generic and vague enough to be used for any random business. When it comes to finding the right fit, that is a definite no! You must have a job description, and a specific one tailored to fit your company and its needs.
A job description should clearly state the necessary KSAs. It should also state expected behaviors that are qualifying factors for the position. Why? Because you want a candidate that can perform the tasks of the job but, you also want a candidate who will fit the organization’s work culture.
Then, you get down to the personality of each individual or prospective employee. Here are some of the most important things to take note of when you are looking to find an employee that is the right fit.
Work Ethic and Integrity
Everyone wants employees that have integrity and a good work ethic. This is how your company can continue to maintain the good reputation you have worked so hard to achieve. This is especially easy to do in our current technology age where online reviews make it so easy for your company to be praised or criticized.
Individuals with both strong work ethics and integrity will always be a complement to any workplace.
Motivation Beyond a Paycheck
You want employees that are motivated to work not just because they are getting a paycheck. You want employees that are interested in their position and your company. When they have this interest, they will have the drive to perform well and also stay and grow with your company. While there should be programs and incentives to motivate employees, it is important to find employees that have inherent motivation.
Business Advocates
You want employees that will be goodwill ambassadors, those who believe in the product or service that you offer. Employees that are excited and enthusiastic can pass their passion on to other employees. Passionate employees do better at their job tasks and are better for the entire team.
Taking Initiative
The employee that is the right fit is the employee that takes initiative. This way you can spend less time ensuring they are getting their work done. This coincides with an individual’s inherent motivation. An employee who loves what they do will be more likely to take the initiative to get the job done. Employees that will work well with little to no guidance and supervision improve productivity and efficiency.
Adaptability
Since you have an existing team, you’ll want someone who is adaptable. Not every member of your team will have the same personality, the same communication methods, etc. So you want employees that are flexible, who are willing to work with other people with different work styles.
It is easy to determine how adaptable someone can be by asking the right questions. There are also exercises that can help to assess if a candidate is adaptable. The latter option is the best as these exercises don’t allow the candidate time to prepare. So you will be able to truly see how adaptable they are.
For example, we ask interviewees to provide an alternative use for a notebook or pen. Depending on the originality of their answer, we can tell how well they can adapt to situations. This can also help to determine if they are quick and analytical thinkers capable of looking beyond the obvious.
The employee that can take an unexpected question or task in stride and won’t get unsettled and flustered is one that would make a shortlist of possible candidates to pursue.
The Importance of Asking the Right Questions
To identify all of the above, it comes down to asking the right questions. Just as every company has a different culture, every employee is different. Finding the employees that will fit the culture and values of an organization can be a daunting task. The interview process alone can take up a lot of time as well as physical and mental energy.
The 2013 American Gallup Poll done on a cross-section of 150 thousand workers showed that 70% of workers hate their jobs. The truth is, two decades ago employers weren’t considering cultural fit. Instead, candidates would mold themselves into a job role and to company values. It was with the arrival of brands like Zappos where Tony Hseih the CEO showed that employees fitting into a corporate setting were more important than their resume skills. It is then that “cultural fit” started getting some attention. With various departments getting more and more collaborative in modern work spheres, employees must have the ability to work well and communicate well with each other.
Considering cultural fit is the way of the present and the future. It is how you can stop hiring employees that will quit within the first few months. And we can help you with this.
So you may now be wondering how we find the right employees for your company. How can we, as outsiders, provide you with the employees that will be the right cultural fit? No need to play a guessing game. Let us give you a peek into our process and how we go about finding the right employees for you.
Types of Questions to Ask in Interviews
At Solvo, we pride ourselves in asking the right questions. We ask all potential candidates questions that are deliberate and specific. We then use these questions to determine if a potential candidate has values that align with your company’s own.
Open-Ended Questions
These questions tend to have no right or wrong answers and they may or may not be the same for all candidates. The answers to these questions give us an idea of how a potential candidate thinks. Discovering their thought patterns can give us an idea of how well they will be able to thrive in your workplace.
Example:
Question: What type of work environment makes you happy and productive?
Answer: I prefer my workspace. I like to be given direct instructions and be left to complete the task. I tend to be more productive when I work on my own. If I need help I will ask for it but otherwise, I like to work by myself.
In this example, if your company values teamwork very highly this individual will not be a good culture fit. This employee may very well be able to get their job done efficiently, but how will their need to work alone affect them over time? Moreso, how will it affect the rest of the team who are all team players and love to work in groups?
Examples of behavior-based open-ended questions include:
Describe a time when you may have lost patience with a coworker, customer, or client and tell me what happened?
Can you remember a time when you followed the policy and procedure of an organization even if you thought you had a better idea? Can you tell me about that?
Was there ever a time when you made a serious error at work? Tell me about the circumstances and what you did?
Can you relate a time from your last job when you were supportive of your coworkers?
Specific/Measurable Questions
These are questions that will be directed to all candidates. The answers to these types of questions provide a clear demonstration of how well candidates will perform on the job and how well they meet the KSAs. We observe the candidate as they answer these questions to see how they analyze a situation. We look for logic and rationale to determine their suitability for the organization and not just for the role.
These questions tend to be general. They will help to identify skills and behaviors that may be necessary for the job. They include situational and behavioral-based questions. Since these questions are specific we know what the ideal answer for each one is. There is a rating system to measure the answers of each candidate at the end of the interview process. The candidates are rated based on how well or how close they were to the ideal answer.
Examples of Specific/Measurable questions include:
- Why would you like to be a part of this team?
- What do you understand about the responsibilities as specified by the job description?
- What is your definition of teamwork?
- What experience and skills do you bring to the table that other candidates may not?
Examples of Specific situation-based questions include:
- You have 10 minutes left in your shift and your manager asks you to stay an additional 2 hours to help recover some lost production. What is your response to the manager?
- You are approached by a vendor who is looking for the manager. If you assist the vendor you will fall back in your production. What would you do?
- You get a call from a customer who received a short order. You check the records and they show that the delivery was done on time and in full. What would you do?
Solvo Can Find Employees That Fit Your Company!
These are just some of the questions that we ask potential candidates to help determine if they are a good fit for your business. Our team of experts at Solvo can help you find employees that are perfect for your company’s culture. So contact us today to discover how our labor solutions can take your company to the next level.
