Here are some new hire onboarding tips
At a big annual conference I attended, the keynote speaker gave a moving talk on how their company lives their core values. She went on and on, making grand statements about the ways in which they harnessed their beliefs to create a powerful culture of engagement, retention, and profit. My heart was alive as I heard her speak; I felt like, “Yes! This is music to my ears!” When they opened it up to questions from the audience, I ran to the microphone and asked her how they vet their candidates for new positions in relation to their core values. I wanted to know how to hire employees.
In an instant, I lost my warm fuzzies as she fumbled through her words, made grandiose statements with no grounding, and wasn’t able to give one clear example of how they did that. In that moment, I knew that although they may have some stories to tell about their culture, they were not truly integrating their values into their operations.
What happens when a team goes through this whole process and then a new position opens up and it’s time to bring a new team member on board?
They haven’t gone through the real-time buy-in of knowing, owning, and living the values, so how can they be expected to have that understanding of their importance in the culture and the expectations of their own behavior each day?
A CEO I collaborate with shared with me that every Wednesday he and his wife lead a Soul Circle with all their team members. It’s a time for each person to share updates on what’s been on their minds, hearts, and spirits and how the team might be able to support them. When I heard about that, a shot of love went up my spine.
Everything about it rang true to my values, and I was so excited to learn that he was creating such a sacred experience in his culture. But what if someone was hired onto his team and wasn’t told about Soul Circle Wednesdays? And what if vulnerability and authenticity did not resonate with that person? That talking about their personal lives at work was nauseating to them and felt like a waste of time? It would be unfortunate for that new hire, and it would be unfortunate for the person who wasn’t hired who would have found that to be a transformative experience.
It’s straight-up unfair, unkind, and inconsiderate not to vet new employees for values fit.
How can they authentically uphold your value promises if the values don’t resonate with them in the first place? You are setting them and the company up for disconnect if you don’t. But when you do, you’re setting them up for a true connection and sense of belonging. At the end of the day, you want your team members to know the difference between simply working somewhere and belonging somewhere. You and your team members can organically feel the gifts of belonging by connecting through and with your shared company values.
Let’s look at the ways you can do that on purpose.
Here is how to hire employees…
How to hire employees: Include your values in job descriptions.
Make sure that people applying to the role understand upfront what matters to you. This will help to attract applicants who feel a connection to them in their own search process. HR executive Christina Moniodis shared with me that at her company, “The responsibilities noted within a job description should be listed according to their importance and the frequency with which they are performed. The first bullet in each of our job descriptions, no matter the position, speaks to the expectations related to our core values. I find this so meaningful as it confirms the passion surrounding our values and how truly important they are in each and every role.”
How to hire employees: Ask values-aligned interview questions.
One of the most obvious but often overlooked ways to assure values alignment between your organization and candidates is to incorporate core values into the interview process. Many times people believe that it’s enough to simply share their values and ask others what they think of them. What candidate is going to say that they don’t agree with your values? Well, perhaps some (either the most aligned or the most unaligned), but most are looking to make a good impression. Instead of teeing up the values with a presentation, what if you went through a mini-version of your values work with them? Ask them what each value means to them and how it shows up in their lives. You could even ask for candidates to share stories of when they had to harness that value in the workplace.
Try this framework, subbing in your own values where relevant:
– Our values here are reflection, connection, and growth. I’d love to know what those mean to you personally.
– Putting our company aside for the moment, how would you define these values in your own life?
– Where have they worked for you?
– When have you had stumbling blocks with them?
– Tell me a story about a time in your life where one of these values drove you. What were the circumstances, and what was the outcome?
The more you can use values as an opening conversation to get to understand the lens of the prospective new team member, the better. There isn’t a right or wrong response, but you’ll get a good idea of whether the person authentically connects with those concepts or whether they’re forcing the answer. And by the final round of interviews, it’s a proven practice to share the expectations around your value promises in greater depth. Be sure that they know what’s expected of them if they come on board so that it’s not a shocker after they accept the role. This is often a really rewarding and unexpected experience for soon-to-be hires, realizing that this place takes their culture seriously.
We did this recently with a new hire, and she told me later how much it made her feel like a part of the team from the start. She could tell how much we cared about the culture we’d been crafting and appreciated the time we took to set clear expectations before she accepted the offer. It was rewarding to hear that unsolicited feedback weeks after she was onboarded. And you can get that same response!
How to hire employees: Ask values-aligned reference questions.
The process of checking references is also a key moment in which to learn whether the candidate’s perspective on how they relate to the company’s values aligns with the reference’s experience. Here you could use a similar style as you did when speaking with the candidate, but instead of asking the reference what the values mean to them, recap what they mean to your organization and ask them to provide an example of when the candidate embodied that value. You can decide if you want to do it with all the values or just have them pick from this list. However, if you really want to get meaningful feedback on someone, I’d recommend that you walk through the values one at a time.
It might sound something like this: “Our company’s culture is driven by our values of reflection, connection, and growth. For us, reflection is about taking the time to pause, slow down, and celebrate what’s gone well and evolve where we have opportunity to do better. Connection is about how important the bonds are between our team members and with our clients. Growth comes down to recognizing that there are always opportunities to get stronger. When it comes to Kait’s candidacy in this role, would you please share a story on how she’s lived the values of reflection, connection, and/or growth?”
How to hire employees: Review the interview process and experience.
If you claim to have the value of integrity or accountability and then you don’t follow up or follow through with prospective candidates, are you really living your value? If you say that you have the value of kindness or gratitude, are you being kind and appreciative of the effort, work, and vulnerability that goes into the experience of interviewing for a job?
Take the time to put yourself in the shoes of a prospective employee, and go on the journey to learn where you can be more in alignment with your values. If you really want to know how you’re doing, ask people who just went through the process, even folks who didn’t get offered the job. A simple Interview Experience Survey can make a world of difference in understanding where you can be in better alignment. A survey question might sound like this:
Opening: We care deeply about our culture, and the hiring process is a significant part of that. Please let us know how you experienced our values during your interview process.
Question 1: On a scale of 1 to 10, how well did you experience our value of transparency?
Question 2: Please let us know why you made the above selection.
You can repeat that pattern for every one of your values. It’s staggering how much you can learn from people when you ask them direct and meaningful questions instead of engaging in the standard box-checking experience.
How to hire employees: Incorporate onboarding.
You must teach the values to live the values. As I’ve said, by the time your new hire makes it to the onboarding stage, they should already be familiar with your values. It would be unfair to hire someone if they weren’t. Now that they’re being trained on what it means to work in your organization, it’s crucial that the values make their way into that process in an even bigger way. Consider doing a mini-workshop or facilitated exercise where new hires get a chance to connect with other newbies to hear how they experience your values in their own lives and what their intentions are of how they can live them while at work. The more you can guide people to internalize and understand the values with their own lens, the more likely they are to remember and adopt them in their daily practices.
Onboarding is also a great time to let people know the recognition opportunities and review processes that are directly connected to these core beliefs. You might even bring in a guest speaker (either internal or external) who can talk about how they experience the values of your organization and what type of difference it’s made in their relationship to the work.
There’s a great quote by Benjamin Franklin that fits perfectly here: “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”
How to hire employees: Give permission to be human.
Every one of us is in a different stage of our journey. Knowing if a candidate can relate to, name, and embrace values isn’t the sole determinant of whether a person will be a great team member. Recognize that most people have anxiety during major changes and opportunities in life, and assume the best about them if they didn’t give you the perfect answer. If you’re on the fence, give them another chance to express and share themselves. Conscious business leaders know that listening to your intuition about someone’s character and skills is just as important as listening to the answers a candidate is sharing with you.
Are you looking for help in hiring and onboarding new employees?
This was an excerpt from MaryBeth’s book – Permission to Be Human: The Conscious Leaders Guide to Creating a Values-Driven Culture.
Learn more from this company culture book.