I just received an email from a client who
had some questions around employee selection. You may find this post
insightful if you are the hiring manager and/or if you are currently searching
for a new position. Enjoy!
Q: Is it better to hire someone who has the skill
sets, but not our culture or vice
versa?
· It is
my professional opinion that you establish the skills that successful
candidates are required to come to the table with . These are the skills
that you are not willing to invest the time and resources into developing
within the successful candidate. If the candidate comes to the table with those
skills, I would then assess their fit within the organization. Reviewing
their personality assessments and conducting panel interviews to include key
business leaders is very important. You are looking for cultural fit, location
fit, and fit regarding the position accountabilities.
· Culture
Fit is really about assembling a team that will complement each other by
striking the proper balance regarding personalities and skills sets.
· Location
Fit is ensuring that the candidate has been educated about the region if they
are new to the area and determining if they are truly comfortable with living
in the specified region. This extends beyond the candidate.
Candidates have become retention risks due to family members not feeling
comfortable in the specified city or state.
· Job
Fit requires that you provide the candidate with a realistic job preview so
that they don’t take the job and resign citing this is not what they “signed up
for”.
Q: If we hire someone fitting to our organizational culture,
how can we expect them to
do the hard steps of pruning,
disciplining and growing our sales distribution? In other words, we have shied away from implementing those exacting management
moves, how can we expect someone with our cultural aspects to be able to execute
better than us?
· Hiring
for Cultural Fit is not the same as hiring with a “similar to me bias”.
You want someone who complements the team. If you have a lot of Adapters
its good to throw in a mix of Negotiators and even a Challenger or two.
Assembling a diverse team is going to create maximum and ideal synergy.
living with some cultural dissonance so as to get optimum performance?
· At
the end of the day, no matter who you hire you are going to have to implement
performance management strategies for any deviant or outlier type behavior that
presents contrary to what is best for your organization. The hope is
always that this looks like coaching and not disciplinary action. Be
prepared to put on your coaching hat as you expand and grow outside of your
family nucleus. As you select a diverse team, watch the ratios of
challengers to adapter, high wanted to control to low expressed control,
introverts to extraverts for example and the dynamics that accompany those
ratios. Being armed with this data is going to make all the difference in
your effectiveness as a People Leader.
For more information please check out the following websites:
Blog: http://job-portunity.blogspot.com
Job-portunity Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=512dK0RVriY
