Asking the right interview questions is just the first step to finding the right culture fits. You must also educate your hiring managers on best practices to ensure they pursue only the best candidates. Here are four best practices they should follow:
1. Give candidates the full view of your organization.
People are good at self-excluding when they know a job isn’t the right fit. But they can’t do that if they only see the inside of the hiring manager’s office.
Invite them on a tour of your building and introduce them to a range of managers and employees. Let them get a feel for the environment, and encourage them to ask their potential colleagues questions. This gives you a chance to observe how they might fit into the culture, and it allows them to assess whether they belong with your company.
2. Don’t mistake personal affinity for a professional fit.
No matter how funny or well-read a person is, he or she still needs to excel at the job — otherwise the recruiting process has failed.
Stay focused on what the candidate brings to the position and the organization. If they meet those criteria, then you can start thinking about their personality. Consider asking candidates to take a personality assessment so you can glean insights into how they might interact with co-workers and management.
3. Let applicants have their say.
The biggest misstep hiring managers make is dominating interview conversations. Sure, you might have 10 more meetings to get through before lunch, and things will move along faster if you stick to your script. But you can’t determine whether someone is a culture fit if you do all the talking.
Allow candidates to steer the discussion. The questions they ask and observations they make may provide powerful insights into whether they’re right for your organization.
4. Ask creative questions.
Use the questions listed in the previous section as a jumping-off point, then add your own twists. Most candidates are accustomed to answering boilerplate interview questions — see how they react when caught off guard.
Can they think on their feet? How deeply have they thought about your organization? Are they in tune with industry trends? A few creative questions can tell you a lot about how a person thinks.
Follow the above best practices to find the right cultural fits for your business, the right way.