Workplace culture and company values have become an increasingly important job consideration for both candidates and hiring managers. Companies and employees alike want to find a mutual fit and ensure everyone on the team is operating under a shared set of values as they work to achieve strategic goals.
While discussions about company values often come up during the interview process, it can be difficult to truly gauge how well a prospective employee personally aligns with those values. To help, 15 members of Forbes Human Resources Council share a few actionable steps a hiring manager can take to identify a good match. Follow their tips to find candidates who align with your company's goals and values.
Forbes Human Resources Council share their insights.
Photos courtesy of individual members.1. Clearly Communicate And Discuss Values And Goals
Ensure the values and goals are communicated and discussed clearly and specifically. Engage in the interview process ensuring alignment with good questions and engage in onboarding regularly to ensure success. One time mentioning these will not do it! - Erin Lanciani, Sage Therapeutics
2. Create 'Communities Of Practice' For Your Values
The right communication is essential. It should start from the first interview meeting. If the company produces healthy products, HR should ensure that future employees will be ready to share the same values. I very much like the idea of creating “communities of practice.” We have a company community platform, something like Slack, where employees promote ideas and exchange opinions. - Evgenia Pavlova, ECM Space Consulting
3. Make Sure Candidate’s Values And Goals Are A Good Fit
Ask, "How will this person add to (rather than fit) the values and goals of the company?" When companies look for values alignment, we are at risk of hiring people who are like us, rather than people who challenge us, expand our perspectives, and improve our work. - Angela Parker, Realized Worth
4. Lead With Values-Based Interview Questions
Build values-based questions into your interview and assessment process, both from a hiring manager's perspective but also coach the candidate to ask these questions. Values alignment is one of the most important factors in retaining valuable talent and both parties should align upfront. - Danielle Monaghan, Uber
5. Ask About The Candidate's Decision-Making Process
Values and culture come across in the decisions we make. Hiring managers can and should ask questions about big decisions a candidate has made or how they have handled crisis situations at work. This provides an opportunity to gauge alignment on values and dig deeper into how the candidate and their values align with the organization's strategic goals. - Jennifer Marszalek, Revolution Global
6. Share Competencies And Strategic Initiatives
It’s important to start this process prehire and to continue to build a recipe for success posthire. At Vyond, we communicate competencies and strategic initiatives to act as scaffolding for each employee’s goals. Compared with static text, videos are a much better way to convey values and company culture. Share big ideas with videos to get everyone aligned, even before they’re hired. - Jeniffer Strub, Vyond
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7. Be Able To Articulate And Demonstrate Company Values
Hiring managers should be able to articulate company values and illustrate them with specific examples of what behaving and executing in accordance with those values looks like. This can lead to extraordinary results and a positive culture and employee experience. - Eva Majercsik, Genesys
8. Ask How The Candidates Interpret The Organization's Values
Besides situational interviewing where hiring managers ask candidates to talk about specific moral dilemmas, it is also interesting to evaluate how candidates interpret the organization's values and how they can explain what the compatibility is. Personal values must be actionable because they influence behaviors that can support or elevate the organization's culture or break it. - Philippe Clarinval, Carlton Hotel St. Moritz
9. Understand How Your Values Are Operationalized
One thing hiring managers can do to ensure prospective employees align with the values and strategic goals of the company are to understand how the values are operationalized to define your organizational culture. From there, interview questions can be developed to learn about a prospective employee's cultural preference to assess fit and alignment. - Sherry Martin,
10. Discuss Your Vision Of The Company's Values And Goals
The hiring manager should be able to articulate the values or strategic goals of the company and cascade the vision down to department goals and individual goals. Then, through the individual job description, the manager should show the employee the competencies or tasks that are necessary to accomplish them. This way, the employee sees the alignment and the role into corporate objectives. - Frank Molinario, Security First Insurance Company Inc
11. Look For The 'Unfit'
Instead of looking for the fit, look for the "unfit" or opposite values of your organization. For example, the opposite of teamwork is overcompetitiveness. So ask questions related to the overcompetitiveness or derailment and not teamwork or the value you are seeking. If you get a non-answer, you may have identified a core value that will not fit within your organization. Derailing behaviors matter. - Berta Aldrich, Private Advisor Group
12. Express What Your Team Needs
Rather than focusing on specific skills, hiring managers might consider words like data-driven, agile mindset or other strategic attributes most relevant to the business. Instead of using generic language or jargon, express what your team needs and measure a candidate's cultural fit and its cruciality for long-term success. - Elizabeth Kiehner, Capgemini Invent
13. Find Out What The Candidate Knows About Your Company
I ask if the candidate has taken a look at our company’s website and ask them to tell me what resonated with them about our culture. That gives me a good idea if culture is important to this candidate or if they are just looking for their next job. Next, I ask them to tell me about the type of company culture they are looking for. It gives me a good sense if they will align with our culture. - Debby Routt, Marathon Health
14. Listen To The Questions They Ask About Your Company
During an interview, listen closely to the questions they ask about your company. If they want to know about company culture, mission and the challenges you’re facing and how they can help address these, it’s a good sign. If their questions are solely logistical and tactical, they may not be thinking about how they align with your core values and company goals, which can be a red flag. - Neha Mirchandani, BrightPlan
15. Get Personal About Your Workplace Value System
As CEO, my role is as much about "being" as "doing." Meaning I regularly communicate and personally demonstrate our workplace value system in live meetings and in writing to our teams. Such values include having a culture of kindness, focussing communication on facts and problem solving, being honest over being right and having no departmental or regional silos, etc. - Eric Friedman, eSkill
