One of the most crucial things that you need to get right as a business owner is hiring the people. They will be the ones who will do the work and who will represent your company in the best light possible. You need to know as much as you can about them and that is why you will always want to do your recruitment as proficiently and as successfully as possible.
Many business owners, especially those who have never recruited employees previously, have a difficult time keeping their personal opinions and preferences out of the recruitment process, which can lead to a number of problems down the line. We will be looking at why this is a bad practice and how to avoid it in this article.
The History of the “Fit”
Hiring a person that “fits” the company’s personality and the personality of the person hiring (i.e. you) is not just something that happens because people cannot differentiate between personal and business. This is actually a concept that came to prominence during the 1980s when people started believing that a person who fits in a business on a personal level will be more likely to excel at their job, give their best and help improve the company from the inside. And while this definitely has logic behind it, it can also be a double-edged sword.
The Most Common Issues with the “Fit”
Unfortunately, this cultural fit has, over the years, become the most important factor that decides whether someone will be hired, which is a huge mistake, as any expert will tell you. For one, it makes the recruiters forget about other characteristics that make the candidate suitable, such as their expertise, their education and their experience. These somehow become less significant, which is pure madness. As a result, just because someone looks like a great person may get the job while someone who is ten times as qualified might not.
In addition to this, hiring the same type can lead to a number of problems down the line. For instance, a team made up of very similar people will almost always employ the same approach to tackling a certain problem. Because of this, they might make bad decisions because there is no one there to view the problem from a different standpoint. In short, this can lead to business suffering, which is not what you set out to do when hiring new people.
How to Avoid this
In order to avoid this problem, the easiest thing to do is to shape the recruitment process in such a way that this cultural fit holds very little significance. Try and think of it in terms of percentages. You should make the actual proficiency and education of the candidate make up at least 80% of your final opinion and you can let the cultural fit be worth 20%. You can still use it, but it should never become the main reason why you are hiring someone.
Of course, you can always go the safest way possible and go with an RPO recruitment agency like RSP Recruitment. By doing so, you are letting experienced and skilled professionals do your hiring for you. This will also free up your time to dedicate yourself to other aspects of running your business.