Analyst Corner
Kevin Wheeler – Personal Job Fit
Kevin Wheeler, the President and Founder of Global Learning Resources, Inc., is a globally-known speaker, author, columnist, and consultant in human capital acquisition and development.
Personal fit should be an integral part of your candidate assessment process. Fitting into a culture, organization, team or job is not always easy. Some people feel more connected and more included than others, and those who feel the most connected and involved tend to be the ones who perform well and stay. People who feel that they belong to something important – something that engages and excites them – make an organization more successful.
Candidates experience the corporate culture almost from their first contact with the organization. They see it in how they are treated, how diligent and caring the employees are, and what the work environment is like. As soon as they meet the hiring manager, they are assessing his or her style and values. When these are in alignment, good performance follows.
Most firms do a poor job of figuring out what makes up their culture and whether candidates would be comfortable in it or with a particular manager. Many factors make up the corporate culture. Some of those are as basic as work schedules and travel demands, but perhaps more significant are the ethics and values the organization believes in, the style of everyday management, and how communication takes place.
There are many ways to determine whether or not a candidate fits your culture. Some firms rely on realistic job previews where candidates get a glimpse of what it would be like to actually do the work, others use interviews with current employees who discuss their duties and thoughts about the firm. Some let candidates select themselves “out” of the interview process, but often candidates overlook potential mismatches and move forward.
It is far better to use tests of cultural and personal fit, such as PeopleAssessments.com Personal Job Fit method, to add a quantitative dimension to the selection process. Whatever method or combination of methods you decide on, making sure candidates will be comfortable in their work environment and with their hiring manager should be a key consideration. By getting candidates who are aligned to your culture, you will experience faster time to productivity, deeper involvement in problem solving, greater innovation and less turnover.
To find out more about our Personal Job Fit method click here.
