Shot of a group of businesspeople sitting in a circle while having a meeting
Increasingly, people are looking for meaning at work. That’s not to say a competitive compensation package no longer matters, but this alone isn’t enough to hold people’s interest. Employees and jobseekers want to feel an affinity with their employer, with nine in ten people surveyed by Tiger Recruitment agreeing they couldn’t work for an organization that didn’t share their values. A recent study goes further, finding that around half of U.S. employees would consider quitting if they didn’t agree with their company’s values, especially around issues such as the environment and social equality.
Organizations that ignore this trend are compromising their ability to attract top talent, while those who embrace it stand to reap plentiful rewards. According to experts, when an employer and employee’s values are aligned, benefits include higher job satisfaction, lower turnover, better teamwork, and more effective communication.
So, just as jobseekers look beyond hard benefits when weighing up a prospective employer, employers should consider more than core competencies in their hiring decisions for a successful match.
From Culture-Fit to Culture-Add
How often have you rejected a job candidate because they weren’t “the right fit”? What you’re really saying is, “I didn’t warm to this individual; they’re not like us”. This reaction is personal and subjective. And if a business only hires for the right cultural fit, it risks building a homogeneous team, impacting any diversity, equity, and inclusion goals it might have. Reframing the recruitment process around values reduces bias, leading to a fairer, more inclusive approach – and a better long-term hire.
So, what do we mean by values? Simply put, they’re the guiding principles that define an organization, what it cares about, and how it operates.
Values can be rooted in morals and relate to behavior – such as sincerity (Nintendo), selflessness (Netflix), or boldness (Forbes). They can be more aspirational, capturing a company’s ethos – such as Google’s Fast is better or Airbnb’s Embrace the adventure.
ESG Focus
Values can also convey environmental or social purpose – such as Patagonia’s pledge to protect our home planet or Ben and Jerry’s desire to support social and economic justice for marginalized communities.
And ESG values like these are what today’s employees and jobseekers care about most. In Tiger Recruitment’s latest Salary and Benefits Review, over a quarter of professionals said an employer’s sustainability commitment will be a top priority in their next job search. Meanwhile, Patagonia’s CEO attributes the company’s hiring success to its focus on doing good. It attracts around 9,000 applications for every open internship and full-time position, and people who join the company rarely leave.
Define, Articulate, And Illustrate
So, how can an employer appeal to values-driven candidates and find the right match? Identifying its core values is the first step. These should be authentic, not empty words it thinks people want to hear. Jobseekers can see through value washing when a firm makes claims it can’t back up or will leave if a company doesn’t deliver on its promises.
A company’s website is often the first port of call for candidates looking for insights into its values and culture. However, candidates will also consult review sites and social media for a more objective view. With Glassdoor’s advanced filters, for instance, jobseekers can quickly ascertain if a company is as committed to diversity and inclusion or work/ life balance as it alleges.
Having defined its values, an organization’s next priority is articulating them – publishing them on its website or including them in job adverts isn’t enough. Hiring managers should demonstrate these values at every stage of the candidate journey and be able to provide examples of what they mean in practice. For instance, one of Tiger Recruitment’s values is excellence. We pride ourselves on offering employers and jobseekers a highly personalized service and going the extra mile. Case in point: when a client approached our private division for two butlers willing to ‘shelter in place’ at their summer residence, we scoured our network to identify the perfect candidates: twin brothers who had previously worked in a similar role at a luxury resort.
Adapt Your Interview Process
So, once an organization has defined its values and can demonstrate them, how can it assess if a candidate is in sync?
The interview process is key. This means speaking openly about the company values so that candidates are in no doubt about what the organization is about and asking values-based interview questions alongside the usual complement of competence questions to find out what makes a candidate tick. The questions should link to the company values, for example:
“Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond for a client.”
“Describe a situation where you found a creative way to overcome a problem.”
“In your opinion, what are the most challenging aspects of working in a diverse environment?”
Behavioral questions such as this help build up a picture of how customer-oriented, innovative, or inclusive a candidate is.
Values-add
Ultimately, making company values an integral part of the hiring process is not only the best way to attract talent that will thrive. It is also the best way to access a wider candidate pool – not just the ones that tick the skills and experience boxes, but those that might bring new skills or perspectives. Ability and experience do matter, but these can be developed in a way values cannot. You can’t teach someone to buy into a company and what it stands for.
With the rise of hybrid working, the values piece is more important than ever. People may not share location, but if they share the same values, they are more likely to connect with the company and be engaged and productive – wherever they are.
