The interview process can be nerve-wracking for potential hires, and for good reason: The interview is your way of judging whether he or she would be a good fit for your company, and in my experience, this usually comes down to a matter of cultural fit rather than skill.
Unfortunately, many companies don’t realize that this process of determining “fit” goes both ways. At my company, we want to hire people who believe our company is a good fit for their life calling — not just their skills and experience. The best way to demonstrate this is to show off the type of company we really are.
The interview is usually a potential hire’s first look at the inner workings of your company, and businesses that use the interview to show off who they are attract better talent and reduce the risk of a hiring mistake.
How to Conduct Culture-Appropriate Interviews
To be effective, an interview doesn’t have to be conducted in a conference room with standard questions like “What’s your biggest weakness?” An interview can be much more dynamic and fluid, depending on your personal style.
Here are a few ways to get more mileage out of any interview and show off your company’s culture in the process:
- Exhibit your culture right out of the gate. Craft your company’s website and career page to show how the open position fits into your company as a whole. Highlight the importance of the company’s mission, vision, and values, and describe how the right candidate will exhibit those values.
- Include your staff during interviews. Hiring should not be left solely to HR and hiring managers. Include as many employees in the process as possible to ensure a good fit and show how your company values the opinions of all its employees. With a 360-degree approach, you can ensure that prospects are interviewed by people who will be above them, below them, and on their level.
- Divide and conquer to get the best results. Using the 360-degree approach doesn’t mean the interview process needs to be chaotic. You can assign different questions to different employees (such as asking one person to focus on the candidate’s qualifications and another to focus on questions pertaining to cultural fit). This also prevents interviewers from repeating questions.
A few good questions to ask include:
- What do you know about our company’s culture? Why is that important to you?
- What are your personal values?
- What are you looking for in this job?
- Can you tell me about a time you worked with someone who had a negative attitude
Create reality-based social situations for candidates. There’s no rule that says interviews have to be conducted in a conference room. Sometimes, the best way to see potential employees’ characteristics and habits is to put them through different social situations. Try taking them out to lunch or dinner or having them sit in on real meetings to expose good and bad habits that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.
Don’t let the résumé dictate the interview. A candidate’s résumé may have gotten him in the door, but you should put that aside in the interview and have real conversations about expectations on both sides. It’s important to let the candidate ask any questions he has about the role and your company.
Provide timely and constructive feedback. Many companies don’t offer any feedback to candidates who aren’t selected for the job. However, providing simple feedback is one of the best ways to become known as a desirable place to work. It not only shows respect for the person who took the time to interview, but it also proves that you want to see him or her improve and find success.
Using these techniques can help you assess the way candidates might fit into your company and show off what it would really be like to work for you. When both you and the candidate know it’s a good culture fit, your new employee will be more likely to stick around and succeed in the long term.