How to Determine if a Candidate Shares Your Company Values

Do you hire people depending on how well they fit your company’s core values? If you aren’t already, you should hire based on their responses to questions like these. Their core values and cultural fit heavily influence the success and contribution of the applicants you hire.

You would want to make sure they succeed in your company. You will want to recruit the candidate who, besides possessing the necessary job skills and qualifications, demonstrates the best fit with your company’s culture.

This potential employee is most likely an excellent fit for your position and company. The most effective employees understand how to do tasks within the context of the companies in which they work. Let’s see how candidate values can help you figure out the right fit.

You have a better chance of finding a candidate that fits your brand’s culture if you prioritize organizational values during recruitment. While you can showcase your values to attract applicants through your company website or job postings, it can also be beneficial to do it during the interview process. Your team will work with the same concepts and aims if you bring these values into the workplace. The following are some of the benefits of value-based hiring:

• When employees fit into the company culture, they feel at ease. Shared ideals strengthen coworker relationships.
• Values improve employee morale. They have a stronger connection to their work when they are happy in their environment and share common goals with their coworkers. You’ll notice a decrease in absenteeism and a boost in employee morale.
• Values boost employee engagement. They will be more engaged in their jobs if your company’s principles are deeply established in its culture. They will make every effort to accomplish things correctly the first time. Employees that are engaged are also more likely to stay with a company for longer lengths of time.
• Values help people work more efficiently. Enhanced productivity results from a better work environment, higher employee morale, and increased employee engagement. A strong organizational view is intimately linked to your corporate culture. They will be invested in their jobs and go above and beyond to increase productivity.
• Happy employees are less likely to leave your organization. Your employees will be more engaged with their work, confident in their abilities, and motivated to stay if they feel valued. You can cut costs while maintaining high efficiency, and your employees can further their careers within your organization.

These sample interview questions will help you determine if your new employee is a suitable fit for your company’s values and working environment.

Based on your workplace, you’ll need to choose the questions that best reflect the attributes you’re looking for in your potential candidates. If you do the following, you’ll be able to recruit talent who shares your organization’s values:

Question #1: Tell me about something you’ve learned in the last six months.

Curiosity is difficult to assess during an interview, but it is doable with the appropriate questions and practice.

“The combination of persistence and curiosity is a very good predictor of employee success in a knowledge economy,” says early ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

To begin, ask the candidates about something they’ve recently learned on their own, or give them a pre-interview task that includes research, and then have them walk you through their process.

Asking this question will help you as a recruiter evaluate candidates based on their keenness and adaptability to learn new things and think outside the box. This will help you judge better if they can share your organization’s core values.

Question #2: What has shaped you, independent of where you went to school or what you did for a living?

You may have seen a pattern: many interviewers go straight over work-related questions when determining a candidate’s alignment with fundamental principles.

You should skip over the common work-related questions and connect with the candidate at a core level to learn more about the candidates’ values and ask them questions like “What has influenced you, independent of your school or occupation? The question forces the applicant to look beyond their professional and educational backgrounds and consider life experiences that reveal their personality outside of the office.

At Ikea, for example, where values, fit, and communication are valued more than credentials and accomplishments, Marilyn Schroder, the Manager of Recruitment, asks questions that reveal a candidate’s true nature.

“Every human being develops certain values throughout his or her life,” Schröder said. “The more their values match those of Ikea, the greater the likelihood that a new employee will be happy with us.”

So now, what can you do to evaluate the candidate’s true nature honestly? It would be best if you considered interviewing in a dialogue rather than a rigorous interrogation session to ensure the suitability of the candidates.

After all, the ideal candidate should not only be qualified for the position but also feel that the role and company’s culture are a suitable fit for their own professional goals.

“It’s not a game of questions and answers,” Marilyn explains. “We hope that applicants would see it as a meeting process and be genuine so that we can collaborate to see if the position is a good fit for them.”

Question #3: Tell me about your most noteworthy technical achievement.

You shouldn’t ignore a candidate’s accomplishments, no matter how much attention you put on their personality, soft skills, or alignment with business values. Indeed, how a job candidate speaks about their previous work experiences might reveal a lot about them.

The question may appear unconvincing and straightforward, but it’s a good litmus test for determining whether a candidate exhibits the company values and talents that are most important in your organization.

This question helps you gauge the level of endurance, thoroughness, and ownership the candidate had while on the project. Endurance can be seen in how they explain their perseverance during a project, whereas thoroughness is defined by their technical understanding of the finer points. The most essential factor, ownership would determine how genuinely vital the candidate was in the project’s outcome.

Tons of candidates make the same mistake—they describe a major project they worked on that sounds super impressive, but after a series of follow-up questions, is revealed to be something they only played a small part in, said Max Brown while recruiting for Tesla.

Recruiters must develop innovative and effective ways to determine if a candidate resonates with the company’s basic principles, just as candidates seek ways to show off their personalities and soft skills.

Values-based interview questions can not only forecast future success but can also assist a candidate in deciding if the position is suitable for them.

Question #4: Can you describe when you had to work as part of a team to complete a task?

The ability to rally around and deliver on a typical project is critical to the success of any organization. Here’s an excellent question to ask if the candidate is willing to work in a team.

People who will give you everything they have daily are worth their weight in gold. Here’s how to determine whether or not someone is hardworking:

Ask them, “Can you describe a time when you had to work as part of a team to complete a task?” to judge the candidate’s collaboration and good core values.

Instead of fluffing up their response, if the candidate describes how they collaborated with other teams and backs it up with real-life instances — that’s what you will take as a good answer.

This allows a recruiter to gauge a candidate’s attitude and understanding of how the organization appreciates collaboration. It would be best if you also determined whether the candidate can provide a specific example of their experience working as part of a team, their participation in it, the conclusion, and most importantly, what they learned from the experience.

Learning shows a desire to grow and a level of humility, both of which are commendable qualities.

Finding talented, educated, and knowledgeable people and placing them in your organization isn’t enough. It would be best to determine whether a candidate is an all-around good fit for the firm.

When existing employees don’t fit in with a company’s culture, it can lead to unneeded workplace turmoil, disengagement, and churn for your customer. Ask value-based interview questions to keep the delicate balance of your client’s company culture and overcome recruitment obstacles.

To know more about how to recruit talent who shares the same core value and build a strong leadership team, contact us at Recruiter.com. We have the resources to help you write the perfect job posting to attract suitable candidates, recruiters who can source quality candidates, or AI software to grow your talent pool.

We will be happy to guide you in your quest for suitable job candidates and help your talent acquisition teams streamline your organization’s hiring process.

 

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