Cultural compatibility of new hires

Five of our newly hired workers resigned within three months after deployment. What’s wrong with our hiring practices? And what’s the cure? — Change Agent.

Let’s understand the context of your situation. How many new hires are similarly situated? My rule of thumb is — if the five resignees represent only 3% or less of the total number of new hires in the same period, then it’s not yet an alarming situation. At least not yet, unless it becomes repetitive over the long term.

If you’re asking me what’s wrong with your hiring process, I can only speculate since I’m not privy to your situation. On top of my mind is the compatibility of the new hires with your culture and management style. This can only be determined when you ask the right interview questions to applicants.

During the process, did you test the applicants for their comfort level working in your culture? Are the applicants likely to be accepted by the group and invited to participate in activities outside of work like socials, sports, and volunteer initiative?

Did you check whether the applicants are participating meaningfully and are not made to feel like outsiders struggling to fit in?

These aspects are often neglected because you are focused on testing the applicants’ competence, rather than their compatibility with the organization over the long term. This often results in the applicants’ estrangement after receiving little support from their colleagues.

PROBABLE CURE
Before deciding on a cure, the probable root cause of the applicants’ estrangement must be determined. As I said, it often boils down to the absence of a compatibility assessment in the hiring process. This involves the human resources (HR) department and the requesting department joining hands in predicting whether the applicant is a good fit for the organization.

To do this, the two departments must do double validation to arrive at a reasonably accurate conclusion using various sets of interview questions, to be addressed only to the top two candidates in the short list. A number of topics need to be explained to the shortlisted candidates. These are:

One, corporate mission, vision, and value statements. This is imperative. Unfortunately, many incumbent managers don’t know them by heart. That’s why they are not usually covered during the interview and onboarding process. In extreme cases, they don’t know how to provide examples.

Even if they do, they struggle for words and come off as lousy managers. The interview questions to be asked is: How well do you accept our mission, vision, and value statements? How would you do your share in implementing them?

Two, measurement of individual and group success. This is about evaluating and recognizing workers’ performance. The interview questions to be asked include: How do you expect an individual contribution to be appreciated compared to group achievements?

How would you manage “groupthink?” How would you handle a workplace bully or a senior worker forcing you to do things his way? How would you describe an objective evaluation process?

Three, leadership skills and style. Managers vary in style. Some allow people to be empowered in problem-solving and decision-making. On the other hand, prefer to do the opposite, treating their direct reports like robots. The interview questions to ask are: How does an applicant manage a toxic and micromanaging boss? If a toxic boss doesn’t want to change their style, then what would be your course of action?

Four, nature of the operating environment. This covers ideal situations where people can be made to work effectively. The questions to be asked include: What factors would determine your success in our organization?

Conversely, what factors would make you fail in such environment? How would you do in managing the issues?

Five, change management philosophy. Even if the vacancy is for non-management workers, it would be best to determine their management aptitude as you’re preparing them for the long-term. The applicable questions are: What are the first things you plan to focus on in the first month of your employment?

If there are systems and procedures that are not to your liking, how do you intend to manage them?

As an interviewee, these basic questions will arm you with considerable understanding of the shortlisted applicants’ profile. Using them will help you predict the reactions of the new hires when they start working for your organization.

Bring Rey Elbo’s Kaizen Problem-Solving Workshop to your line leaders. Guaranteed to bring you millions of savings or you don’t pay. Contact him on Facebook, LinkedIn, X or e-mail elbonomics@gmail.com or via https://reyelbo.com