hiring.for.cultural.fit

Hiring for Cultural Fit

Johanna Rothman @johannarothman

www.jrothman.com [email protected]

781-641-4046

© 2015 Johanna Rothman

Cultural Fit Frustrations

“No chemistry”

“Not such a great fit”

Candidate doesn’t want the

offer—and it’s not a salary

issue

What is your culture?

2


What Culture Is

How people treat each

other

What people can discuss

What you reward

3


If You Want Cultural Fit…

Develop your awareness of

your culture

Develop questions to

detect fit for culture

5


Examples of Culture Based Around Team-building in One Organization

Manager1

Team-builds with rope courses, laser tag, other physical activities

Loses people over a few years, but the people who are left are a team

Manager2

Believes constructive debate builds teams

Part of a new hire’s audition is to to engage in a debate

CEO

Believes that corporate parties/activities build the management team

Managers must attend summer picnic, holiday party, lead the United Way charity drive

Their children and spouses must attend the parties also

6


“Corporate” Culture Is Incomplete

We may talk about

“corporate culture”

Each manager puts his/her

stamp on top of corporate

culture

Culture is local

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When You Hire…

Understand your group’s

culture and how it fits into

the organization

Check out candidate’s

culture preferences

8


How to Understand Your Culture

1. Determine the boundaries

with context-free

questions

2. Understand the specifics of

the role with contextual

questions

3. Determine the manager’s

cultural stamp9


Context-Free Questions

What does success look like?

What problems does this

position solve?

What problems does this

position create?

Why are these results desirable?

What is the position worth to

you?

10


Contextual Questions: Technical Skills

Technical skills

Functional skills

Domain expertise

Industry expertise

Technology/tools expertise

11


Contextual Questions: Qualities, Preferences, Non-technical Skills

Ability to manage large groups of people (or small groups)

Ability consider several ideas, not jump at the first one

Analytical abilities

Negotiation skills

How people-oriented vs. task-oriented (especially for managers

or project managers)

Sales ability (for not-specifically sales folks)

…12


Perform a Job Analysis

As you analyze the job, make sure you ask these kinds of questions:

1. “Who will this person work with on a regular basis? On an irregular basis?”

2. “Tell me about the level or responsibility you want this person to take”

3. “What is this position worth to you?”

4. “Tell me about the strategic/tactical/operational parts of this job”

5. “What will this person do/what deliverables do you expect on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly

basis?”

6. “Tell me how you can see this person working on a daily basis. … Tell me about the

interactions you expect to have with this person”

7. What’s important for this person to already know to succeed in this position

8. “Tell me about the way you describe your group to other people. Is there something I should

know about, something that will attract a certain kind of person?”

13


Two Primary Qualities of Culture

Adaptability

Perseverance, aka Grit

These are part of the growth

mindset

Caution: if you don’t have the

growth mindset, don’t hire

for it (typical in a control

culture)14


Develop Candidate Interview Questions for Cultural Fit

Adaptability

Perseverance:

Courage, Achievement, Follow-

through on long-term goals,

Resilience, Release vs. perfection

Success

Challenges

Environment

Offer

15


Types of Questions

Closed questions establish the facts

Behavior-description questions: “Tell me about a time

when…”

Auditions

Hypothetical questions: “What would you do if…”

Meta-questions: “What else should I ask you?”

16


Adaptability

“Tell me about a time you

were surprised. What

happened?”

"Tell me about a time when

you did not have the

conditions you would've

liked for your project. What

did you do?"

17


Growth Mindset

Tell me about a time you had to learn something new. What was

it? How did you do it?

Give me an example of a time you had to take courageous action.

Tell me about a time you wanted something that seemed far off.

What did you do?

Tell me about a time when it felt as if you failed. What did you do?

Tell me how you know something is sufficient for release.

Have you ever wanted to postpone release? Why?

19


Success

“Tell me about a recent

success. What caused it?”

You might hear these things:

“Supportive environment”

“Risk-taking”

“Ability to make my own

decisions”

“Decisions by consensus”20


Challenges

“Tell me about a recent

challenge. What caused it?

What did you do?”

Candidates will explain

problems — especially

where the culture

interfered

Example: VP and process21


Environment

“Tell me about your environment

now. Does it contribute to you

success? (If not, ask about

environments in the past.)”

Listen to what makes people

successful

I’ve met many senior managers

who believe they need to be

the star technical person.

22


Offer

“What’s important to you to see in an

offer?”

Offers are much more than salary

Other perks, including vacation time

Electronic toys/tools

Labs, other capital equipment

Ability to use funds for books,

conferences, training, etc. for staff

Senior managers: ability to hire,

ability to manage raises and bonuses

23


It’s Not Luck

You know it’s not luck, it’s

skill

Do the job analysis

Prepare behavior-

description questions

Use an audition

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Let’s Stay in Touch

Pragmatic Manager:

www.jrothman.com/pragmaticmanager

Hiring Technical People blog: www.jrothman.com/blog/htp

Book: Hiring Geeks That Fit

Please link with me on LinkedIn

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