Skip the either/or, find the “and” in recruiting

Summary: When hiring, skip the either/or of cultural fit and skills. Make it cultural fit “and” skills.

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Finding, recruiting and hiring people can be an on-going activity at many companies. This can be due to growth or turnover (replacing people). Actually I find in many cases, it is because they have the wrong person in a position.

What does that mean? We can go to Jim Collins book “Good to Great” where he discusses having the right people on the bus and then placing them in the right seat.  We can hire people who fit our culture and possibly lacking in skills or the reverse, hiring the skills and foregoing the culture.  It shouldn’t be an either/or, it should be an “and”. Find people with the right skills and attitude.

The right skills refers to the essential skills a person needs and not the “shinny object” skills a person may possess. For example: when hiring an office manager you need accounting background and a “shinny object” would be database management. Take a moment before placing an ad to determine what the person/position will be doing each day and what skills are needed.

The right cultural fit refers to attitude and beliefs.  You may not have realized this, your company has an “attitude” or “belief” system. Take a look at Zappos and Netflix – they hire very strongly against these criteria.  Find out what is important to you, what makes your company and people successful and duplicate in your next hire.

This may sound like a lot of work but here are a few things you can keep in mind to make the process easier.

• Determine what you need in the new person/position not only today but down the road in 6-12 months time.
• Hire with the future in mind.
• Before meeting/interviewing anyone determine what qualities/skills are the most important to you (and don’t compromise)
• Create a list of questions to ask each candidate, this way you won’t miss anything and it will be easier to compare candidates.
• Only after interviewing all the candidates, review each person and determine who is best for you.
• If you have other employees in your business, have the final candidate talk to others so they can get a feel for the company.

Keeping these in mind you should get a successful hire who will help you with their knowledge and be satisfied in their new position.  It will be a win-win!

Happy Recruiting!