What criteria and methods do you use to make sure you are bringing in the right individuals who can thrive in your organization?

When bringing in the right people who will thrive, focus on these three things:

Cultural Fit: Skills can be taught, but alignment with the company’s core values is non-negotiable. I look for people who resonate with our mission and have shown similar principles in past roles.

Adaptability: It’s crucial to understand how someone approaches change, collaboration, and problem-solving. Asking situational questions or exploring past challenges reveals adaptability and whether their approach complements our team dynamics.

Passion for Growth and Learning: Especially in dynamic industries, I prioritize candidates who show a continuous drive for learning and skill development. They’re the ones who’ll grow with us.

The methods I use: structured interviews, behavioral types of questions, a project or task simulation to get an idea of who they are.

I can speak to recruiting for sales: Each sales job is different. Ours is complex B2B requiring expertise in drug discovery (advanced degree) paired enterprise technology expertise plus -of course -  a great sales track record or proven talent. 

We have a multi step process: Our company recruiter is the first to evaluate a candidate, besides interviewing he uses DISC to assess the person's fit.

He won't share the results for a while so that his results do not influence others.  After his evaluation I interview that candidate and earliest then our results are revealed to each other. If both are thumbs up then this moves the interviewing to the teams who would work with the candidate directly. We interview not just for skills, talent, experience, sales track record but also for cultural fit, the latter being quite important as we use an unusual collaborative team sales approach. 

So far this has worked quite well, our top sales people have high retention rates like most our staff (over a decade) which matters due to the specific domain expertise which takes time to build and helps people exceed their goals. 

To ensure you bring in individuals who will thrive in an organization,

Consider incorporating practical assessments into the hiring process.

The ideal way is to assign a relevant task that mirrors the role's day-to-day responsibilities.
This helps evaluate candidates' skills and problem-solving abilities while also observing how they respond to challenges.

Lastly, look for those who acknowledge their knowledge gaps and show a willingness to learn rather than rely solely on polished interview techniques to fake their Know-it-all wisdom.

This approach offers a clearer understanding of a candidate's potential performance in real work scenarios.

Pro Tip: while looking for a skill, ensure and remember you are hiring a good person. :)

~KK

We focus on aligning our recruitment criteria with our company's core values and culture. We use a combination of behavioral and situational interviews to gauge cultural fit and resilience. Additionally, we include role-specific assessments to ensure the candidates possess the necessary skills. Ensuring a diverse panel of interviewers also helps us get well-rounded views on each candidate's potential to thrive in our organization.