A typical approach to recruitment is to first look for people with the right skills, qualifications, and track record for the role. But increasingly we are seeing the importance of the 4th pillar of the recruitment process, and I’d argue that it is perhaps the most important – ‘cultural & values fit’.
As everyone is aware we have a shortage of people right now which means there is a higher risk of companies recruiting the wrong person in desperation. Employing the wrong person will have a significant detrimental impact on your business and as Mike Weinberg says we need to proceed with caution as “No breath is better than bad breath”.
It’s a given that the right skills, qualifications, and track record (experience) are important in selecting the right candidate, but do we focus enough on cultural fit and values alignment in our candidate selection process?
Often this cultural fit does not show itself until the individual has been with the business for a few months and by then often serious damage has been done to team morale, customer relationships and internal culture.
The key to avoiding this recruitment mistake is to get very clear about the Values that are important to us and the Culture we are looking to foster. One of the first things we advise a sales organisation to do is to define their ‘ideal customer profile’ and just as importantly the type of customer they do not want to attract. Our suggestion is that you apply this same approach and define what your ideal team member looks like and what behaviors and working styles do not fit that mould. This needs to be a deliberate focus that often starts with the values of the business and that of the individuals inside of the business.
Years ago, I employed someone that deep down I knew was not the right person, but I thought I could change and mould them. It wasn’t that this person was not capable, quite the opposite in fact. The concern was that this person could be seen as a disruptor and have an unsettling effect on the rest of the business. Sure enough that was the case, this person was not a team player, more like a lone wolf and not only did they disrupt the mood and culture of the business, but it ended up causing a significant loss to the business when other staff members started to look elsewhere for roles.
It was a huge mistake from me and one that I will try to never repeat. Not only did I recruit the wrong person in the first place, but I was willing to tolerate certain destructive behaviours that I turned a ‘blind eye’ to because this person was delivering results. It quickly became clear that there was a values misalignment and highlighted that I wasn’t clear enough in my own mind which values were critical to shaping the culture in our company.
The longer I am in business the more I realise how critical it is to be deliberate in truly understanding the values of the business and especially how they align in your recruitment and HR policies. Many of us have not focused enough of our time on the importance of values and creating a deliberate workplace culture. With 81% of salespeople (Mood of the Sales Leader 2022) approached about a new role in 2021 it seems to be an imperative than that we start to focus on these.
The values that each business chooses should be individual to the business and reflect the industry and what type of company or culture they are looking to build. I remember reading one of Richard Branson’s books and he mentioned that several of his executives couldn’t handle working at Virgin because of the perceived stress of working in a fast paced, high-risk environment. So maybe “risk” or “boldness” were values that were dear to Virgin but not as appropriate for an insurance company or bank.
The reason why this is top of mind for me is that we have focused on this last week at Sales Syndicate with a particular emphasis on what are the key values of your staff. Understanding the values of your team so that you can work well with them but also how are you going to retain them. We often ask our team what motivates them, but we typically never get the real answer in the first response.
Indicator Head Trainer Michael Fooks highlights that you rarely get the real values out of someone’s mouth in the first instance. You need to keep probing and drilling deeper to truly understand what drives someone. If we know what really floats their boat, then we can put strategies in place to keep them happy and motivated. In the current environment, with salary wars going on, running a process like this can also help crystalise the views of the team member who will then think twice about jumping at a big money offer if their current role is meeting their needs.
Here is a simple process you can run with your team or even with your prospects to understand what is important to them. Think about using these as part of your ‘Stay’ interview process which we are seeing as increasingly more important than the more common ‘Exit’ interviews.
- Elicit Values
- What’s most important to you?
- If you had all these what would cause you to leave?
- Order the values
- Is ‘x’ more important than ‘y’ or is ‘y’ more important than ‘x’?
- Drill down into the values
- What does this value mean for you?
- How do you know when you have it?
- Why is that important?
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