Will Your Top Candidate Fit In?

You have a job candidate you really like. He has the knowledge, skills and experience you need, and looks to be a top performer. But before you make the hire there is still one very important thing you need to check on – does this person fit in with your company culture?

If you are not sure about this, there are three ways to go about finding out if your company and your candidate are a good fit.

1. Wait until the end of the interview to describe your company culture to the candidate. This will give you a little time to assess the person’s personality, character and attitude to get a better idea about the person’s fit with the company. If you describe the culture up front, and then ask the person if he or she will fit in, you will probably get an affirmative answer. So, waiting, and probing how the person fit in at other companies will give you a better idea if he will fit in at yours.
2. Question the person about the worst company culture he’s ever experienced. The person’s answer to this question will give you an idea of what his previous work environments were like and how he might react to your work environment. But you also need to be careful with a question like this: what someone considers bad is a subjective perception. You need to probe a bit to find out why the environment was considered so awful by the candidate.
3. Ask him how he handled working in a culture that was less than the best. This will give you some information about his character and personality. Did he find ways to adapt to the situation, or did the person simply decide to cut his losses and look elsewhere? Did it affect his attitude? Did he become negative or stay optimistic?

After you have been able to get a sense of the candidate’s personality and are better able to assess his fit, you can go over the culture at your company. It would also be helpful to give the candidate a brief written description of your company’s – or even your department’s – culture. Doing so shows how important you take “your way” and also provides a real glimpse into it for the candidate. He may see the culture “in black and white,” and decide it’s not one for him.

Insurance Relief™ specializes in finding the hard-to-find great candidates for the insurance industry. Recruiting insurance professionals is all we do and we’re experts at it. We can be a great source for you in finding the hard-to-find. Contact us today.