The Character Interview: A Win-Win For Recruiting In The Great Reshuffle

(originally appearing on Forbes.com)

As the Great Reshuffle (the phenomenon formerly known as the Great Resignation) sprints ahead, leaders with long-term vision are leveraging this period of high mobility to pick up prime talent. While some advocate a skills-based recruiting approach, I advise my clients that character is the currency of today's savvy recruiter.

Why Character Trumps Capabilities

In a rapidly changing environment, a candidate's current skills and capabilities are unlikely to retain their value for long. In a pre-pandemic report from Deloitte, 53% of respondents said that between half and all their employees would need to reskill within three years. The shelf life of skills has surely diminished since then.

While a person's skills are highly malleable, character is highly stable over time. With the exception of entry-level hires who tend to develop work-related values in the first few years of employment, research shows that a person's values rarely change after entering the workforce. This means that candidates who share the vision and values of an organization are likely to remained aligned in the long-term. These candidates are more likely to feel they belong, to learn and grow as the organization evolves and to perform above and beyond the call of duty.

Bad Character's Hidden Cost

On the other hand, employees who aren't a good fit are unlikely to come around. We've all been in a situation where a high-performing jerk somehow gets a pass for bad behavior. One Harvard Business School study estimates that these toxic employees cost far more than they add to the bottom line. Even when the toxic employee is a "superstar," performing in the top 1%, they cost an organization more than twice the additional revenue they bring in.

This is because other team members lose motivation and confidence in leadership, resulting in significant loss of productivity. Eventually, critical members of the team leave, creating turnover costs and further damaging morale. The stable nature of character means that any hopes of getting that high-performing bad apple to change their ways are likely to be dashed.

The Character Interview

Adding a character interview to your recruiting process can help keep out the bad apples and focus your team on hiring for long-term value.

Research I conducted with my colleague Tamara Myles indicates that simply asking about a candidate's values in the interview process is tied to a greater performance and retention down the road. Discussing values signals that character matters in your organization. Candidates get the message that you have a strong, intentional culture and that they are expected to contribute to it. Those whose values align become more strongly attracted to your organization. Those whose values don't can self-select out of the process or be screened out by your team.

Here are five tips for an effective character interview:

1. Ask candidates about their values.

Develop several behavioral interview questions focused on your organization's core values. This will help you understand how well the candidate's values align with yours.

An easy way to start is to simply ask, "What are your top three to five values when it comes to work? Can you give me an example of each?" You'll learn a lot from how candidates answer (or struggle with) this question.

2. Create a scorecard.

We are full of biases—many of which are difficult to consciously recognize. Creating a scorecard, with clear instructions on what to ask candidates and how to rate them based on their answers, helps reduce interviewer bias. It also makes it easier to compare candidates who have been interviewed by different people.

The Zappos core values interview is an excellent example of how this is done.

3. Look for values-add, not just values-alignment.

Research shows that diversity of thought and perspective is a huge asset in uncertain times. Remember, you're not looking to hire clones—you want people who share your values and will challenge you to live them more fully.

The ideal team member is someone who will come to you and say, "I've been thinking about it and, if we really care about transparency, we might want to reconsider how we've structured our monthly all-staff meetings. I have some ideas about how to make them better."

4. Double the weight you give to values in the interview process.

The psychologist George Ainslie has found that people tend to give far more weight to immediate gains than to long-term ones. Remember that there is an enormous, often invisible, long-term cost to hiring employees whose values don't align.

If a candidate’s values don’t line up, take your cue from a company like Zappos and don’t hire them, no matter how much talent or expertise they bring to the table.

5. Take the long view.

When you consider the fact that a candidate's skills will probably need updating in a few short years, hiring for character is just good business. Filling an open role may relieve some short-term pressure. However, if you don't see this person growing with the organization in the long-term, the net impact is almost certain to be negative.

Current studies indicate that candidates are hungry to join organizations where they can do meaningful, values-aligned work. A character interview not only helps screen out bad apples, it also helps attract the good ones.