This question may be part of the advertising for recruiting new IT staff in a Government Public Department.
What does this mean exactly?
It makes the point that selecting for culture fit is so much more important than skills. You can test for skills, you can see their experience and abilities on their resume but how do you know if they will fit in with your organisation and your team?
In addition, the skills you need in your team today may not be the ones needed in a year or two, But if you have selected people who fit into your organisational family, you can be confident they will take on the challenge of learning the necessary skills.
How many of us have worked with people who- on paper – look great (eg “top graduate in their field”), but who are jerks to work with? Or just don’t fit into your industry or your team culture?
I would rather choose someone with enthusiasm and a passion for the industry and product, than someone who has the top scores on my selection matrix for skills.
Yes, we need people who CAN do the job, but even more important is WILL they do it, and will they FIT into our culture, values, team.
The following questions can help you explore motivational and culture fit:
- What was your motivation in moving from A to B?
- What was your motivation in moving from A to B?
- What did you enjoy most in those roles?
- What have been the highlights in your career? What have you enjoyed the least?
- What attracted you to this position?
- What are your expectations of this role?
- How do you like to spend your day?
- What are the ‘joys’ and ‘headaches’ in your past jobs?
- It’s OK not to like everything about your job. What would you like to do less of?
- What are the key aspects of your current role that you would like to take to this role?
- What areas of development have you taken on outside of work?
- What’s your ideal day at work look like?
- Tell me about your recent initiatives – outside of work – to advance your career.
One pitfall to be aware however: Don’t skew your selection processes so that you fall into the trap of cloning your team members because this candidate is ‘just like us’. Value diversity in that it will bring different viewpoints into your team and can create a richer team environment.
Our Workshops in Recruitment and Selection Interviewing can help you hire the right candidate, not only someone who can do the job, but really wants to work with you, and will fit into your organisation and your culture and values.
