Experts warn against hiring to fill a position without considering whether the candidate is a good cultural fit. “If they don’t really care about motorsport, the chances are they aren’t going to stay for very long,” said our source. “It’s all about being comfortable in the company that you work in.”

Looking to fill that open position with just the right person? Determine the best fit for both company and prospective employee with these useful strategies.

Whether it’s a football team driving from the two-minute warning, a group of physicians performing critical thoracic surgery, or an entrepreneur trying to launch a new product or organize a race team, the proper personnel are an essential element of any successful endeavor. When it comes to picking people, leaders sometimes get things seriously wrong, with potentially punishing consequences. Here’s a hard and fast rule: No one can succeed in any initiative—ever—without the right staff. Getting it wrong involves a litany of mistakes that no one wants to repeat.

“The first problem is when people just hire anyone to fill a position or a seat,” said Chicago, Illinois-based management consultant Barry Moltz, who has been a breakout speaker on hiring practices at both the PRI and SEMA shows. “They’re too quick to hire because they just want someone in there doing the job. They don’t thoroughly vet them. The second problem is when people hire only for skills, not for cultural fit. And the third one is, they don’t give the person any training when they get to the job.”

What’s cultural fit? It’s an assessment of whether a new hire is going to mesh smoothly with the new employer and co-workers. One immediate consideration, as Moltz expressed it, is whether the new hire shares the same burning passion for racing as everybody else in the company. “If they don’t really care about motorsport, the chances are they aren’t going to stay for very long.”

In Moltz’s estimation, put yourself in the position of the new hire: Everybody’s amped about winning races except you. Would you stick around?

“It’s all about being comfortable in the company that you work in,” he explained. “Employees don’t leave companies. They leave other people. It’s like hiring someone to work with the NFL. On Monday, everyone’s going to come in and talk about the games. If you don’t watch the games and don’t care about them, you’re going to feel left out. When I had my own company, I only hired people who were interested in that industry. I had a great saleswoman who didn’t last long because she couldn’t connect with the people around her.”

The flip side of this scenario involves due diligence on making sure the prospective employee is right for the company. But post-COVID-19, with firms of every description struggling to hire and retain personnel, prolonging the evaluation process can mean a candidate could jump elsewhere before the evaluation is complete. Part of the reason may be that human resources hasn’t explained why the firm is worth joining. That’s a corollary to what Lancaster, Pennsylvania, hiring consultant Ed Krow stressed while speaking about employee retention at the PRI Trade Show last year.

“You can get a job anywhere today. Candidates want to know what kind of work experience they’re going to have with you,” Krow emphasized. “If you look at companies today, they tailor everything in their social media toward the customer—how great is our product or service. What they’re not harnessing through social media is what it’s like to work there, what kind of candidate gets behind those cool products and services. What I’m working on with my clients is to have them using their social media accounts and have their marketing team do the same things they do to engage customers to instead engage potential employees. That’s next-level recruiting. Once they see the light, it becomes part of how they recruit.”

To Krow, at least, blaming COVID-19 and staffing shortages for hiring issues misses the problem, and solution, entirely. “Most companies that are actively recruiting, and telling their stories, are having success drawing the types of people to them that they need to run their business,” he explained. “It’s because they can tell their story better than their competition.”

Krow advises his clients to make live recruiting videos for social media, wherein existing employees explain why they love their jobs, and about the enjoyable tasks they do. “You’re killing two birds,” he said. “One is, look at the cool work that we’re doing for our customers, and you’re also speaking to potential employees, showing them your current employee who’s having fun and making a difference in the world. That’s what recruits want to see.”

One wound employers commonly inflict on themselves is what Krow calls the we’ll-get-back-to-you blunder. “That candidate is going to be employed and gone by the time you call him back,” he warned. “I tell my clients, you love this guy, and I know you’ve got other interviews scheduled, but you need to tell him—within the next week—here’s what’s going to happen. You’re bringing him back and you’ll have an offer within a week. Tell him that. If he doesn’t feel the love,
you’re going to lose him. Organizations have to understand that right now, this is a seller’s market.

“Given the numbers in our population and baby boomers retiring, I don’t see this talent shortage going away anytime soon,” Krow said. “If we have the opportunities, we can draw the right people who want to work.”

SOURCES

Ed Krow
edkrow.com

Barry Moltz
barrymoltz.com