Hiring the right person is more than just filling a position – it’s about ensuring they complement your team and contribute positively to your company culture
CREDIT: This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on Entrepreneur
A bad hire can be one of the costliest mistakes for a company. While it’s easy to recognise a poor hiring decision in hindsight, spotting the warning signs early can be much more challenging. Hiring isn’t just about finding high performers – it’s about ensuring they fit within the team culture. Even the most skilled individuals can be detrimental if they bring toxic behavioural traits that disrupt collaboration and morale. Traits such as a lack of team mentality or competition over cooperation can be hard to identify in an interview.
To avoid bringing someone on who looks great on paper but causes friction within the team, here are a few strategies to consider:
Culture Over Skills
It’s essential to remember that you’re building a team, not just hiring resumes. While qualifications are important, they shouldn’t be the sole deciding factor in your hiring decisions. A candidate’s ability to fit into your company culture is just as critical, if not more so.
If you ever find yourself facing a choice between hiring someone with impressive qualifications but a questionable cultural fit, and someone with the right mindset and attitude but fewer technical skills, always prioritise culture. While skills can be developed over time, it’s much harder to cultivate the traits that make someone a good team player, communicator, or problem-solver. Building a cohesive team starts with selecting individuals who align with your culture and values, ensuring that your team will work well together and thrive in the long run.
Objective Testing
Objective tests can seem like an appealing choice when hiring. They offer a clear, easy-to-compare score for candidates, they’re typically seen as fair, and they reduce the risk of bias in the evaluation process. Additionally, they often measure hard skills that are essential for the role, and they are usually simpler to administer than other types of assessments.
However, relying solely on objective tests has its limitations. While they can provide a snapshot of a candidate’s technical abilities, they don’t capture the softer skills that are just as critical to success in the workplace. This is why it’s important to use a combination of both objective and subjective criteria when evaluating candidates. Objective tests can measure knowledge and specific skills, but the subjective assessments should be carefully crafted to focus on personality traits and cultural fit. Interview questions, behavioural assessments and scenarios that test emotional intelligence, teamwork, and problem-solving in real-world settings can provide valuable insights into how a candidate will function within your team.
Utilise Different People in the Process
While it may be possible for a toxic individual to deceive one interviewer in a single meeting, it becomes much more difficult to maintain that facade when exposed to multiple people over time. By involving a diverse group of team members in the interview process and conducting interviews at different stages, you create a much higher chance of uncovering any negative traits a candidate may try to hide. Different people bring different perspectives, and each interviewer may notice behaviours or inconsistencies that others miss. This multi-layered approach not only helps in identifying red flags but also ensures that the person you hire will genuinely align with your team’s culture and values.
Taking the time to evaluate both the skills and character of candidates ensures you hire individuals who will excel in their roles while also preventing toxic behaviours from infiltrating your company and disrupting the harmony of your team.
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