Hiring for more than just skill?

As an increasing number of companies are focusing on personality traits and potential cultural fit when hiring. Focusing on finding a personality fit is beneficial to both employers and potential employees. Who are these potential hires behind all these achievements, promises, and great track records that they have on paper? 

The business world is changing to flatter organizations, more team and project work, and increasingly collaborative work environments, finding people who get along with others and fit into corporate culture are essential to success.

Hiring managers are therefore starting to use personality questions more and more to go beyond the resume and find the better-fit candidates for their organization. Here are some tips on how to determine whether or not a candidate fits your culture.

Understand and know your own culture
Many factors make up the corporate culture. Some of those areas are basic as work schedules and travel demands, but perhaps more significant are the ethics and values the organization believes in, the style of everyday management, and how communication takes place.

Take the time to understand what the ingredients are of your true culture and then you will be able to assess candidates with far greater success.

Potential plays a key role
Nothing is more important in a new hire than personality. While having the right skill set may seem essential, the fact is, skills can be acquired. Personalities cannot.

These days social intelligence is key in any company, most employees will need to work with others and it’s important to select people that will be able to help the team succeed and be more productive.

Realistic job expectations
If you want to make the right decision when hiring a new employee it’s key to be upfront about not only the job description but also give them a realistic preview of how it is to work for your company.

Gaining this accurate perspective on the job's true demands provides the best chance for both sides to determine fit before a commitment is made.

Interview correctly
If you are looking to hire a job applicant who, in addition to the required job skills and qualifications, exhibits the best fit within your organization you need to also adapt your interview process to be able to assess that. The most successful hires fit both the job and your workplace culture. One way to evaluate this is to have candidates interact with not only the people they will report to, but people who will be their peers, and the people who will report to them.

Even when you feel pressure to fill the job quickly, it’s important to remember that you’re not just making a job offer for an open position. You are asking someone to join and grow with your company. Hiring for cultural fit will greatly reduce the risk of a costly bad hire and having to do the same hiring process over a few months down the road.

If you need help with this process, we can assist. Communicate Recruitment is a specialist recruitment agency, with the very best recruiters. We specialize in the sourcing of top candidates in the Finance, IT, Engineering, and Supply Chain/Freight industries, both for permanent and contracting placements throughout South Africa, and the African continent. Contact us today.

Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net by Stuart Miles