One of my favorite reads in the morning New York Times (now lovingly delivered online to those of us who live and work in the sticks!) is the section called Corner Office. Great, candid, often jarringly transparent interviews with workplace leaders and shakers. This week it's a close up with Tony Hsieh of Zappos, who incidentally was a fabulous addition to the 2009 Human Capital Summit.
He says of Zappos "we actually do two separate sets of interviews. The hiring manager and his or her team will interview for the standard fit within the team, relevant experience, technical ability and so on. But then our H.R. department does a separate set of interviews purely for culture fit. They actually have questions for each and every one of the core values...
One of our values is, “Create fun and a little weirdness.” So one of our interview questions is, literally, on a scale of 1 to 10, how weird are you? If you’re a 1, you’re probably a little bit too strait-laced for us. If you’re a 10, you might be too psychotic for us."
His idea of interviewing for a cultural fit may seem like a norm, but how many of us acually do it? I did a little research so this blog isn't entirely anecdotal-- here are some places you can go for more information. And while I'm thinking about it-- wouldn't the topic make a great webcast?
The Non-Negotiables of Hiring for Cultural Fit
The Cultural Fit Factor, by Lizz Pellett
Personality Traits and Workplace Culture: Online tests measure the fit between person and organization
Mark Mallinger, Ph.D. and Ileana Rizescu of Pepperdine University
and let me know-- do you see this as an issue in your workplace?
All of the links above are not working. Might want to check that out.