There’s a lot of advice out there for what you should look for in a job candidate and how you should make your decision. There’s also a lot of advice about how job candidates should land the job that they want. But what a lot of these writers/advisors forget is that there needs to be a match between the candidate and the company.
You might love a certain job candidate as a person, but they might simply not be right for your company. Their work ethic might be completely different from what you’re looking for and their values/priorities might be different too.
Is There a Fit Between the Candidate and Your Company?
So the first thing you need to do is consider what type of company culture you have.
- Work Ethic: Are you running the type of ship where people stay late everyday and put in a lot of hours? In that case, you need a job candidate with a similar work ethic, who won’t have a problem with staying overtime.
- Creativity: Maybe you’re running the type of business where creativity is appreciated more than hard work? In such cases, you’ll need to look for a candidate who might be eccentric but will come up with a number of unique, original, offbeat ideas.
- Collaboration: You might have the type of company where everyone works collaboratively, in which case you’ll need a candidate who can be a team player. But if you run a company where people tend to work alone, then someone who has to be around other people and bounce ideas off them will be a misfit.
Do You Want to Change Your Company Culture?
You may want a candidate who fits in with your company culture, but this doesn’t mean that you can’t change your company culture at all; in fact, you might already be thinking about doing so.
- Work Ethic: Maybe you don’t like the fact that all your employees are staying overtime or that the worth of an employee is judged by how many hours they put in. In that case, you can work to change this company culture and hire someone who is able to work smarter rather than longer.
- Creativity: If you’re trying to inject a shot of creativity into your company culture, then you’ll need to hire someone who thinks creatively and has many original ideas.
Either way, it’s a good idea to consider your company culture and whether you want to strengthen it or change it in some way before you hire a candidate.