Today the hiring process requires a different mind than in the past. It requires that its business unit leadership conduct a careful introspective assessment of the soft skills and traits that make for a successful hire, long before completing the requisition with the required hard skills. It is far too often that retention stats point to a “lack of fit” as the reason for termination of employment, either voluntary or involuntary. This reminds me of the common cause for failure in marriages; “irreconcilable differences”. Further, this is a much harder type of screening than attempting to ensure that the candidate does possess the hard skills required to execute the position.

The assessment of “will” as I tend to refer to it, requires that you are continually updating the overall “fit” of prospective candidates, with much greater rigor than the technical or hard skills. To accomplish this, a hiring manager must ensure there is a soft skills profile that clearly outlines the “experience” that this candidate would be expected to endure in both the company department, and in interfacing with the companies client base. All of these interactions can make or break the working relationship that the new hire establishes (or does not) in their new environment.

Some organizations have employed Employee Success Managers (ESM) that are actual line level employees, who perform quarterly assessment of the environmental conditions as they presently exist within the hiring company. (Note: We are employing ESM’s in a pilot at Salesforce.com) These ESM’s answer the question “what does it take to be successful here?”. They perform a rather critical assessment that includes those that departed due to “lack of fit” and use that input to define the parameters for success (many that may be rooted in the “fit list” below). Additionally, these ESM’s are then chartered with assessing the new hires experience at differing stages of their lifecycle to further identify areas of cultural misfit that can possibly be mitigated before they become a retention impediment. This would be akin to conducting a Red/Yellow/Green (RYG) assessment on a project, then using this to develop a risk mitigation strategy for success. Additionally, the ESM RYG’s would then feed into the updating of the critical success factors that need to be used as part of the screening process.

A word of caution with this approach......it must ensure that you are both formulating the critical success factors and the relevant screening questions with an eye to the legal ramifications of venturing into asking questions that are “soft” as they must be clearly linked to the success of this position. I assume it goes without saying that a candidates political affiliation cannot be assessed in an interview as being relevant to their success. However, their ability to exhibit a high degree of political savvy as a means to future career success’ would be a relevant question. I pose here a list of “soft” skills that could be relevant to the success of a new hire. To the extent they are relevant, the initial profile for success should be determined before even posting a position, then the relevant and legal questions that can be asked to assess the fit, should be developed before interviewing. For sake of consistency, these “fit” questions should be highly consistent and relevant to the company, business unit and client base that a position will operate under. These areas to potentially assess are:

I. Cultural Fit -
a. Company Maturity - assess and define the current company maturity and what challenges that poses (ie. Is the company in transition, undergoing a radical change or is it stayed and unwavering, making change nearly impossible?). Has this candidate worked under these constraints in the past or would this be a new experience that many not be received well?
b. Political Match - how politically charged and driven a company is and how has this candidate been able to thrive in such an environment in their past?
c. Work Environment - does this candidate need a strong sense of community or are they used to working in a much more autonomous manner and are more comfortable with this?
II. Flexibility - is this an ever changing company that is in transition, thereby requiring a high degree of flexibility and agility?
III. Career Management - has this candidate shown signs of managing their own career or do they assume it is the responsibility of their employer?
IV. Community Involvement - do they share the same aspirations of the company regarding their past history of community involvement?
V. Stretch Role - have they sought and obtained stretch roles in the past or do they migrate to a comfort zone and then become discontent and blame their career stagnation on others?
VI. Life Balance - can they articulate hobbies, interests, etc outside of work that they are passionate about and committed to continue despite extensive work demands?
VII. Self Awareness - can they articulate at least one definitive shortcoming that they are committed to working on?
VIII. Esprit de Corp - how have they exhibited a team spiritedness in previous assignments? Can they articulate what you mean by the fact that there is no “I” in team?
IX. Passion - do they exhibit a natural passion for something that is plainly obvious or do you need to draw this trait out?
X. Values - can they definitize the values that matter to them? Where does integrity fall in the spectrum? Where does loyalty fall in their value system?

The net affect of this approach is two-fold, as it ensures higher retention, and it uses the line level experiential knowledge as the basis to determine whether a new hire could ‘fit’ or not. Through the use of the ESM’ it can also provide a differentiating Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for a line level employee who takes a keen interest in helping improve the retention of a specific business unit or department. They truly become part of the solution and can take great pride in helping head off a problem employee before they are even hired. That has great value throughout the organization and of course to the new hire that conceivably would have to restart a job search a short time after assuming a new position. This just seems like a win/win for all involved! Give it a try, as I would love to see the stats from hiring for will (fit) versus such a chronic focus on merely skill!