While team building is a key concept in HR management, hiring managers often forget that team building exercises only help employees whose goals and values closely match those of the organization.
Adequately screening and carefully selecting employees is the first step in team building.
Characteristics of employees who make good team members and who would receive team building exercises and suggestions well include:
- They value their position in the organization and feel a personal connection to the work they do.
- They desire to make a difference in the organization.
- They willingly accept change and understand the drive behind it.
- They respect their coworkers, clients, and managers and value their opinions.
- They see criticism as an opportunity for improvement and embrace suggestion.
Of course, most candidates will make an effort to present themselves as all of these things during an interview. How do you separate the great employees from the great pretenders through the interview process?
The key is to learn how they have responded to challenging situations in the past. Because these questions ask about personal or professional experiences, candidates are unable to recite an answer from a textbook and are more likely to be honest. Hiring managers find that candidates whose behavior didn’t match the values of the organization typically do not acknowledge that by filtering their answer. More simply put, they believe they handled the situation well and accurately share their experience even when the hiring manager views their behavior as unfavorable.
Some examples of questions that may reveal helpful information include:
- How many times did you take an unplanned day off of work in the last twelve months?
- Tell me about a time you’ve been asked to do something you didn’t agree with and how you handled it.
- Have you ever had to work with somebody you don’t get along with?
- Tell me about a time you’ve had too many things to do at once and how you organized your tasks.
- Have you ever been disciplined or terminated from a position before?
Hiring managers often feel pressure from every direction to fill positions quickly, but it’s important that both upper management and directors or supervisors support selective hiring. Hiring the first candidate or the candidate who can start the soonest makes creating and maintaining a positive work culture difficult if not impossible. Furthermore, organizations often find that terminating “bad apples” with limited legal risk can be a long and tedious process. During this process, which takes months on average, damage to morale occurs that can be lasting and difficult to repair.
Here are some tips to keep in mind when making hiring decisions:
- Keep in mind that in order to find the right team members, you may have to make some sacrifices. Choose your sacrifices carefully; for some positions it may be acceptable to sacrifice experience and certifications (these things can be taught) but an organization should never sacrifice dedication, ability to work well with others, or values that align well with those of the organization.
- Every hiring decision should be made by more than one person. A great team is an HR representative and the person directly supervising the position, and a good rule of thumb is that if both parties don’t agree to hire, an offer is not extended. This ensures that you take those gut feelings seriously and can save you from hardship in the future.
- Having an established mission statement and evaluating candidates against that mission statement can prove to be helpful in selecting the best fit.
In summary, investing in the hiring process and choosing patience and selectiveness will contribute to more effective teams, more productive players, and better end results.
