If you’re committed to building a strong team, you probably already know that qualifications and experience, while important, aren’t everything. I think of them as a foundation, sometimes even an adaptable one. If qualifications and experience are the foundation, what makes up the building? I like to think of it as synergy.
If my goal is to build a strong team, I don’t want to consider a candidate’s potential in a vacuum. Their success and contribution to the office largely depend on them becoming a real part of the team. When you place this emphasis on fit — how their personality, work style, and attitude will mesh with your existing team — you’ll make it easier to find that candidate who is qualified and who will strengthen the team.
Traditional hiring approaches largely focus on qualifications and leave the rest to surface-level, uninspired questions. If you want to find someone who will jump on board and help the team to thrive, you have to break out of that mold. Here are a few ways you can delve into a candidate’s potential to benefit the team:
Get out of the conference room
One of the best ways to start an interview is to break out of the traditional setting. We all know that overly-formal feeling of sitting in a conference room waiting for the interviewer. It can make candidates feel nervous and guarded, making it challenging for you to get a real sense of who they are. Instead, try starting out with a tour of the building or property. Getting into a slightly less-formal setting can help put candidates at ease so you can get a feel for how they engage in everyday life.
Let candidates shadow
Again, don’t be afraid to break out of the typical format. If you’ve found a couple of candidates who have made the top of your list, set up shadow interviews where they can come into the office, interact with team members, and engage in the office dynamic. Though these do require a bit more of the candidate’s time, they can help you and your team determine if there’s a sense of cooperation and connection.
Don’t follow the script
Just as physically changing up the interview process can help you arrive at the best candidate, so can changing the dialogue. There are some questions you hear in almost every interview — what are your strengths and weaknesses, and what’s a major challenge you’ve overcome?. I’m not saying these are bad questions. By all means, if these answers help you to understand a candidate, ask them. I’m suggesting that you also incorporate some less-expected questions into the mix, ones that ask the candidate to think on their feet and abandon their script. These really depend on the vibe of your team. Does your team have a good sense of humor? Is creativity important? What do they love about the office culture? When you know your current team, you can ask questions that point to some of their defining characteristics.
Set up peer interviews
You’ve reviewed the qualifications, and your conversations have gone well — what else can do you? Sometimes, the best way to get a sense of fit is to take a backseat. If you’re considering how this person will mesh with your current team, it makes sense to let those team members in on the evaluation. In addition to getting multiple perspectives, letting a candidate talk to someone in a similar role, as opposed to a manager, can lessen the pressure and allow them to relax and be more themselves.
Do your research
Lastly, those references you asked for — call them, and have some questions ready that go beyond work quality and experience. If you want to know what type of person a candidate is and how they work as a team, a past employer can give you some helpful insight if you ask the right questions.
Synergy is about things coming together and making something greater than the sum of their parts. If you want to build a thriving team, you need to make sure those individual members can work together in a way that produces quality work and a quality culture. Put that extra effort into the hiring process to go beneath the surface with candidates, and you’ll set yourself up for a successful hire.