Make it work from day 0 with these new hiring skills
Questions to ask, traits that matter and more
Welcome to another edition of ProductiveGrowth 🌱, weekly stories about productivity, leadership, motivation, and anything else that helps us and our teams grow and be more productive. Plus, industry news on the companies, products, and services that allow us to work less and do more.
TL;DR
Hiring is one of the most important processes at a company. It has the ability to define employees, to make them or break them. Nevertheless, some companies have never updated their ways of bringing new people in, or they’ve copied other models that just don’t work for them. This is why finding your own process, the one that’s going to give your team what they need is so important.
This week, I want to talk about how to improve your hiring methods, how to think outside the box, and what to expect when you’re sitting on the other side of the desk applying for a job. Ever since I started hiring differently, I have seen how my team grows in a different way, one that is meaningful and special.
Thanks for reading.
Steve
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EDITOR’S PICKS
🤝 Is this person good for the organization or do you just like them?
Even when workplace culture is important in the day-to-day operations of an organization, it can be a way for unconscious bias to sneak into the hiring process. This article from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management explains that people often hire candidates with who they share similar backgrounds with. By doing so, they essentially create copies of their current employees, making it harder for the organization to grow and develop. This can be an especially big challenge if the organization is struggling to establish a solid culture and that is why the first step is to figure out what the culture of your organization is and hire based on it. Then, eliminate as many unconscious biases as possible. Finally, always think about the role’s mission before hiring.
🙋 It’s time for the workers to make the questions before saying yes
During the hiring process, managers try to get as much information as they can from their future workers before making an offer. Sometimes, the dynamic leaves little room for the employees to know if the company will be suitable for their needs and aspirations, especially when it comes to work-life balance. Although a lot of companies brand themselves as “employee-first,” the truth is that it takes more than fun events and POP material to achieve a true employee-first mentality. This article from Fast Company is a great guide on the questions employees must ask their hiring managers before accepting a job offer to really find out what matters to them, like talent development and leave policies.
🧠 Experience matters, but other traits do, too
When you talk about hiring, the first thing that probably comes to mind is a folder full of resumes. That’s the way hiring has been managed for ages: sift through a list of accomplishments, experiences, and accolades to find the best candidates. Even though the qualification for certain positions, also known as hard traits, are crucial to filling a role, soft traits are what really make people stand out. These soft traits, like openness to experiences, motivation, and proactivity, are not necessarily learned but more innate and can make a difference between a good and great employee. I personally love to interview my future employees and ask questions about their lives before hiring them. Trusting my intuition on this one has always helped, but this article from Entrepreneur details some specific soft traits you can look for next time you interview a candidate.
✍️ Hiring is like dating: make it attractive!
Jobs change every year, month, and even week, so why do the descriptions stay the same? For Whitney Johnson, who writes for Harvard Business Review, this is the biggest mistake more and more companies are making when it comes to hiring. Getting the proper job description to attract the candidates you really want and need is almost as important as the job itself, and you’ll find some useful tips here to accomplish that, like avoiding limiting language and envisioning the future.
1 Quote
“I’ve learned over the years that, when you have really good people, you don’t have to baby them. By expecting them to do great things, you can get them to do great things.” - Steve Jobs
1 Question
What do you value the most when you’re interviewing someone to hire them?
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Flooded by emails? Serial entrepreneur Mohit Mamoria talks email management. - On persistence, motivation, leadership and staying productive.
Usually, when something is not working for you, it’s most likely to be bothering someone else too. Mohit Mamoria told Steve how he took the opportunity to create Mailman and change his life and the life of many others. Click here to read his story.
DISCOVER
Tired of having to include every little thing in your task manager apps? Where and how you’re going to do exactly whatever it is that you have on your to-do list? Strongweek allows you to set more intuitive categories that you can change to best fit you, no specific due dates involved. Read more about it here.
How to run a culture workshop
Your team doesn’t take ownership, they struggle to work together, and no one knows what your company stands for. You have a culture problem.
Culture is the binding force that brings teams together through a common mission, behaviors, and beliefs.
How can your company deliberately define its culture then?
Have you heard of a culture workshop? A culture workshop is when a team comes together to define values that everyone wants to emphasize in the decisions they make day-to-day at the company.
The important part of the team coming together isn’t the outcome, but the process itself. If it was about the outcome, the CEO could present everyone with a mission and list of values that they’re expected to follow at the weekly meeting. The outcome would be soulless. Who would really care?
When it comes to a culture workshop, it’s the process of the team coming together and co-creating that generates change and alignment.
This process, when skipped or done poorly, turns into a marketing slide that is soon forgotten. When done well, the spirit of the company is transformed into something you can feel in the air.
There is no one right answer to how this should be run, but there is a principle you should follow.
You should aim for the process to be about co-creation with your entire team, to encourage buy-in, common language, and ownership.
The following steps for culture workshops have been successfully applied at a number of Silicon Valley companies to drive cultural change.
Steps for a culture workshop
Leadership buy-in
Draft initial values and mission with leadership
Brainstorm based on draft with team
Refine values & mission with leadership
Publish values & mission
Integrate into onboarding and team rituals
Next week in part 2 I’ll dig deeper into the specifics of each step of a culture workshop.
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Edited by: Lauren Maslen.
