Hiring the right people for the right seats
May 20, 2021
In this episode, we talk about the importance of contemplating company culture into your hiring process.
So we are now hiring for two different roles in my company. We're hiring a content marketing specialist and a growth hack marketing specialist. So the good news is we're growing and I wanted to share one of our interview experiences with someone that we actually interviewed yesterday. This person, he was, he seemed talented, he seemed like a very nice person, seemed very nurturing and for this position, we're looking for someone that's very nurturing because they will have to work across several different teams and the teams have to be willing to like want to work with this person and feel like they're being taken care of by this person.
So this person, he seemed like he embodied all these characteristics. And whenever I do an interview, I mentioned this before how when you establish a company culture, you have to get the company onto the founder's values. So whoever the founder is, whoever the visionaries for this business that business is going to run according to the founder's values and that's how it should be, because if you want a good business to run the direction and the attitude comes from the top and whatever it comes from the top is revealed at the bottom.
So if you're more interested in that whole cultural thing, I think I talked about it a little bit more on how to establish a company culture in episode 85. So go ahead and check that out if you're interested. But with this new person. So I'm interviewing this person and I have my values written on a piece of paper and I'm evaluating how close they are to these values. So the very first one, brutal honesty is something that I really value because for me, if the person is unwilling to be honest with them, not only themselves, but with me as well, it's really difficult to know what is making them happy. Because the situation and I don't want to get in is where you're giving something some kind of task of this person. They're not unhappy, but they just do it anyway. And eventually, they start building a presentment. They don't share any of this information with you. And finally, they start looking for other jobs and find something else when really all they have to do is be honest.
And maybe you wouldn't have got them the job at the very beginning, but I think it would have saved not only them a lot of waste of time, but me as well as the founder of this company. So I'm evaluating this person on brutal honesty and I kept asking this person, you know what if someone gives you a task that you don't want to do, how do you handle it? And the answer that I'm looking for, and to be fair, I try to keep an open mind just to see how this person will handle this question. But the answer I was kind of looking for is you know, I would talk to my boss, let them know that I don't like doing this task, and try to figure out if there's like a different way to do it.
And this is the type of employee that I want because I know what they want. They are not afraid to ask me or tell me what they want and it's easy for me to know what will make them happy and how to keep the company culture in harmony. So I asked this person, what would you do in a situation where you are given a task, but you absolutely hate this task and how would you handle that situation?
And instead of saying that, you know, he would try to work it out or try to talk to this person on how he could make it more a little bit more palatable. He was just like, I'm gung ho, I'll just do, I'll do whatever. He didn't even ask what kind of task this is or anything like that. He was just interested and motivated to do this task and I can understand that someone might need a job and someone might need employment. But this is the thing like I'm trying to get the right people in the right seats and to get the right people in the right seats, I have to be able to work with honest people. And if this person isn't going to actually push back and say, hey, I don't like doing this task, let's try to figure out how to make it easier for me or can we give it to someone else then I'm not sure how to help this person and this person is not gonna fit within the culture.
What's gonna happen is they are going to start doing these tasks, they're going to start resenting everything about the company, they're going to start feeling disconnected, they're going to feel like they're being given tasks and they're not being heard. And one of the reasons they're not being heard is because they're not speaking up and a lot of employees actually do this and I totally understand why you would not want to speak up. But I think for an employee in the long term it's in your best and if you're an employee it's in your best interest to speak up because that way you will get what you want and you will be able to avoid the things that you don't want. But if you just keep it to yourself and you don't express your thoughts and feelings, it doesn't help me, it doesn't help you as an employee.
And I know the people that are listening to this our founders, but I'm just kind of, we've all been employees as well, right? So we can think of it in employee terms. So needless to say that this person did not pass the cultural portion of the test after the whole brutal honesty part. We actually didn't even test anymore I asked Ana if she had any questions to ask, she didn't have any questions. So we just kind of let this person go, which is a little sad because I liked him. I liked him as a person, but he was not a fit with the company culture.
And company culture is so important because company culture translates into employee experience and then customer experience. So we try to get the culture right. I hope this helps in you or for you, for you to be able to set up your company and your hiring practices. How do you interview your candidates? Are you looking solely at skills or do you look at values? Let me know. This is Robin Copernicus. Boom. Bam. I'm out.
Continue your journey with me on my other channels:
So this person, he seemed like he embodied all these characteristics. And whenever I do an interview, I mentioned this before how when you establish a company culture, you have to get the company onto the founder's values. So whoever the founder is, whoever the visionaries for this business that business is going to run according to the founder's values and that's how it should be, because if you want a good business to run the direction and the attitude comes from the top and whatever it comes from the top is revealed at the bottom.
So if you're more interested in that whole cultural thing, I think I talked about it a little bit more on how to establish a company culture in episode 85. So go ahead and check that out if you're interested. But with this new person. So I'm interviewing this person and I have my values written on a piece of paper and I'm evaluating how close they are to these values. So the very first one, brutal honesty is something that I really value because for me, if the person is unwilling to be honest with them, not only themselves, but with me as well, it's really difficult to know what is making them happy. Because the situation and I don't want to get in is where you're giving something some kind of task of this person. They're not unhappy, but they just do it anyway. And eventually, they start building a presentment. They don't share any of this information with you. And finally, they start looking for other jobs and find something else when really all they have to do is be honest.
And maybe you wouldn't have got them the job at the very beginning, but I think it would have saved not only them a lot of waste of time, but me as well as the founder of this company. So I'm evaluating this person on brutal honesty and I kept asking this person, you know what if someone gives you a task that you don't want to do, how do you handle it? And the answer that I'm looking for, and to be fair, I try to keep an open mind just to see how this person will handle this question. But the answer I was kind of looking for is you know, I would talk to my boss, let them know that I don't like doing this task, and try to figure out if there's like a different way to do it.
And this is the type of employee that I want because I know what they want. They are not afraid to ask me or tell me what they want and it's easy for me to know what will make them happy and how to keep the company culture in harmony. So I asked this person, what would you do in a situation where you are given a task, but you absolutely hate this task and how would you handle that situation?
And instead of saying that, you know, he would try to work it out or try to talk to this person on how he could make it more a little bit more palatable. He was just like, I'm gung ho, I'll just do, I'll do whatever. He didn't even ask what kind of task this is or anything like that. He was just interested and motivated to do this task and I can understand that someone might need a job and someone might need employment. But this is the thing like I'm trying to get the right people in the right seats and to get the right people in the right seats, I have to be able to work with honest people. And if this person isn't going to actually push back and say, hey, I don't like doing this task, let's try to figure out how to make it easier for me or can we give it to someone else then I'm not sure how to help this person and this person is not gonna fit within the culture.
What's gonna happen is they are going to start doing these tasks, they're going to start resenting everything about the company, they're going to start feeling disconnected, they're going to feel like they're being given tasks and they're not being heard. And one of the reasons they're not being heard is because they're not speaking up and a lot of employees actually do this and I totally understand why you would not want to speak up. But I think for an employee in the long term it's in your best and if you're an employee it's in your best interest to speak up because that way you will get what you want and you will be able to avoid the things that you don't want. But if you just keep it to yourself and you don't express your thoughts and feelings, it doesn't help me, it doesn't help you as an employee.
And I know the people that are listening to this our founders, but I'm just kind of, we've all been employees as well, right? So we can think of it in employee terms. So needless to say that this person did not pass the cultural portion of the test after the whole brutal honesty part. We actually didn't even test anymore I asked Ana if she had any questions to ask, she didn't have any questions. So we just kind of let this person go, which is a little sad because I liked him. I liked him as a person, but he was not a fit with the company culture.
And company culture is so important because company culture translates into employee experience and then customer experience. So we try to get the culture right. I hope this helps in you or for you, for you to be able to set up your company and your hiring practices. How do you interview your candidates? Are you looking solely at skills or do you look at values? Let me know. This is Robin Copernicus. Boom. Bam. I'm out.
Continue your journey with me on my other channels:
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