April 21, 2017

Webinar: Values-Based Hiring – the REAL way to hire for "fit"

Most companies operate under a broken hiring system, and they may not even realize it. Reading countless resumes, and administering interviews, can be daunting, time consuming, and downright disappointing. We get it. Hiring the person with a stellar resume and who seems great in the interview, especially once you realize you have similar interests, seems like the right fit. You may even hire someone you can see yourself hanging with outside of work.

However, research has found when you hire for cultural “fit”, that does not predict successful performance in the role.

Values-Based Hiring: The REAL way

Hiring for values “fit” is not the same as hiring for culture “fit”. A company that values collaboration in a team setting will not align with an introvert who excels working remotely. Instead of risking a bad hire who does not align with the company’s values, we suggest moving to Values-Based Hiring.

Our staff sociologist Liz Kofman admits she was once “the epitome of a very bad and costly hire”. So, we asked, what went wrong? How did this bad hire get the job?

the real way to hire for "fit" values based hiring

Two key factors were in play:

  1. Looked good on paper

    An excellent resume is one that gets you scheduled for interviews and ultimately job offers. So let’s just say that Liz’s looked good. Hiring managers saw that she went to the “right” schools and had the “right” skills for the role. But research has shown that most bad hires have the technical skills needed to get hired.

  2. Casual unstructured interview

    Instead of the interviewer taking time to pre-plan questions that focused on the most important hiring criteria, they enjoyed casual conversation bonding over a mutual love for travel and in-depth talk of politics. There was little talk about the actual job or even the organization. So Liz was offered a job that she ultimately had little information about.

real way to hire for fit values based hiring

Put simply, Values-Based Hiring is the doing opposite of this. Redact names and schools from resumes, with a Sharpie if nothing else. Conduct formal, structured interviews in which each candidate is asked the same behavioral-based questions, designed to elicit their values.

Neither of these measures is especially difficult (and our software can help keep everything running smoothly and everyone on the same page), but science says they’ll make a disproportionate difference to the quality of your hires and the excellence of your culture. Can you afford not to?

Tune in to watch the full stream here