So what is fit? In the simplest of terms … it is the innate characteristics that make-up the personality of the parties involved. Whether the parties are husband-wife, boyfriend-girlfriend or employer-employee, it requires that the innate characteristics or personalities, of the parties involved, ‘fit’ together.

Innate Characteristics

What do we mean when we talk about innate characteristics or personality? Innate characteristics are the thoughts, values, and habits that determine how they think, what motivates them and how they relate/communicate with others. These can be called innate characteristics because how they do these things makes up their very core … the most fundamental things about them. A very important point is that these innate characteristics are unlikely to change.

Since people have these innate characteristics that make-up their personality, matching their personality to that of a company will provide a greater probability for long-term success. This doesn’t mean that as a senior manager making a hiring decision that you should ignore a prospective employee’s knowledge and skills. One should ensure that the new employee meets a certain level of competency in these areas. Unfortunately, most executives spend too much time on these areas and not enough time on determining if the candidate’s innate characteristics are in-line with the company’s personality.

HP’s Example

Lets take a fairly recent example of a hiring failure based on a lack of fit. Remember when Carly Fiorina took over the helm of Hewlett-Packard. Was HP a successful company? Yes. Was Carly Fiorina a successful executive? Yes. On paper, this relationship should have worked out … but it didn’t. Why? Ms. Fiorina had the necessary skills and knowledge to do the job, but her innate characteristics/personality, or ‘fit’, was not the right one for HP.

You see HP had a distinct corporate culture or personality. The company is very successful because it is dedicated to its core fundamental characteristics. These core fundamental characteristics make-up the company’s personality. This personality is ingrained in the fabric of the people that work at the company. Unfortunately in this case, Ms. Fiorina’s innate characteristics were not a match for HP’s core fundamental characteristics … so a separation ensued.

If this personality is ingrained the fabric of the employees, doesn’t it make sense to hire people that have a personality that fits in with the core personality of the company. Absolutely, it does!

Hire for Fit

I would venture to say, when hiring, most senior managers spend 80% of their interviewing time on knowledge and skills with the rest of the time on fit and, of course, small talk. The unfortunate part about this is that research suggests that 2/3 of the determinate for having long-term success with a new employee is based on how well they ‘fit’, leaving the remaining 1/3 to knowledge and skills. As one can see from this formula the chance of hiring a new employee with long-term success is in the neighborhood of 35-40%. However, when these senior managers spend 80% of their time determining if the new employee’s innate characteristics are in-line with the company’s personality then the probability for long-term success is closer to 70% plus. As an executive hiring a new employee, which scenario would you like to have?

As a thought, we all know friends or colleagues that have gotten a divorce. How many times have you heard from one, or both, parties that they thought they could change the other person? This can be similar to what happens when a senior manager hires a new employee. It is so important to remember that the core of the new person, their innate characteristics, are not going to change after they are hired. Too many times executives make the mistake of thinking that an innate characteristic is a skill or knowledge.

You see, skills and/or knowledge can be learned or developed. But can people really change their personality or innate characteristics? In a perfect world the answer is yes, but since we are living in the real world … one shouldn’t expect a new employees to change their personality.

The bottom line is clear … spend the vast majority of your time determining if a prospective employee ‘fits’ with your organization or you will once again be going through the hiring process … and much sooner than you would like.

For more information about the services provided by HiringForFit.com, please give us a call at 1-888-462-8222 or CLICK HERE to send an email and we will call you.

What can be done to set up an new executive for success? Build and adapt a strategy for a success-driven assimilation as soon as the new leader becomes interested in the organization. This is called onboarding or new hire assimilation.

Whether or not the new leader has a professional assimilation, the fate of a new executive is often sealed within the first three months. The new leader is being assessed, or judged, from the very first interview as to whether or not they ‘get it’. Without objective third party help, it will usually take a new executive 12-18 months to realize their success. failure or shortcomings in their new role.

There are significant benefits when supporting a leader in their onboarding as listed below:

1) Thorough understanding of business culture and objectives
2) Increased collaboration among senior leadership
3) Increased job satisfaction
4) Decreased likelihood of job turnover

New leadership assimilation is ‘not’ the same as employee orientation. Usually an orientation is a program consisting of a few hours of training and even then, the content is usually high level. An executive assimilation is a customized approach which is broader in scope, more interactive, over a longer time frame, and is framed to the specific role of the leader.

The alternative to an assimilation is public trial and error. Think about it … would a new executive go to their new boss, or peers, and ask … “What do you think I should do?” or “How do you think I should proceed?” In a word ‘NO’, even if the they have the best of intentions.

A successful new hire assimilation includes detailed investigation, understanding and development around four specific areas:

1) Corporate understanding
2) Business unit details
3) Functional skills, knowledge, ‘inates’
4) Personal development

Importantly, in addition to the other clear benefits of new hire assimilation, it can also become a valuable recruiting tool for your organization. Offering this benefit, lets key candidates know how important they are to you. It can be your organization’s secret weapon in the war for talent.

For more information about the services provided by HiringForFit.com, please give us a call at 1-888-462-8222 or CLICK HERE to send an email and we will call you.

Traditionally organizations have focused on identifying and selecting people based on their skills and experience. However, while skills and experience continue to be important, research and practice increasingly point to ‘motivational fit’ as the key differentiator in the selection process.

Improved screening for motivational fit brings obvious rewards. For instance:

• Improved productivity
• Improved retention
  
• Increased ROI of human capital
• Less training

While assessing for culture fit during the recruitment process is consistently identified as critical, many companies are not systematically assessing for fit and employing methods that are likely to deliver the best outcome.

Since too often companies fail to consider motivational fit and in particular organizational fit. The outcome of this lack of focus is illustrated in the accompanying graph. Lack of such focus will cause companies:

• Loss of customers
• Increased staffing costs
• Lower moral
• Loss of revenue

Today, hiring managers are being asked to do more and more as human resources departments are being outsourced. So what can a manager do to ensure better results?

1. Assess their own company, department, and personal culture.
2. Determine the talents and behaviors  required for success in the role, by looking at the best performers
3. Spend less time in the interview assessing skills and experience, and more time on fit.
4. Double check findings with thorough reference checks.

Assessing culture/motivational fit can be a daunting challenge but with a little training and practice most hiring managers can become effective at assessing for the right things.

For more information about the services provided by HiringForFit.com, please give us a call at 1-888-462-8222 or CLICK HERE to send an email and we will call you.