When mass layoffs happen across the economy, candidates will be flooding the job market. While that’s a positive for employers, companies also need to be cautious when evaluating these candidates.

“So many organizations get excited about a candidate’s potential that they tend to look over behavioral style and cultural fit,” said Mark Waschek, President, Ag1Source. “

During times when there are a bevy of candidates available for roles, Waschek encourages hiring managers to remember what they’re really looking for in a candidate. For example, if you’re hiring for a sales role, behavioral style, cultural fit and the specific needs of the role are very important. A company with high market share will need a sales person with a very different style than a company that’s trying to grow a market.

Crystal Clear Job Description

At every step in the hiring process, organizations should use the job description as their guide, while also being aware that in current economic circumstances, candidates will be more willing to apply for roles that they’re overqualified for.

“Just because a candidate was an outstanding salesperson for another organization doesn’t mean that they will excel in any sales role,” Waschek explains. “You have to take all four pillars into account—performance, skills, behavioral style and cultural fit.”

The job description should be specific and honest—you don’t want it to be vague just so more candidates will apply. Companies should want the right candidates to apply.

“A lot of organizations make that mistake,” Waschek said. “The job description should work to deter the wrong candidates from applying almost more than attracting the right ones.”

Candidates Should Align

A job description can talk about the company culture, the specific day-to-day duties of the job, and what personality traits may be needed to be successful in the role.

“When we’re screening candidates, the questions are focused on how they align with the four pillars,” Waschek said. “We want to avoid the mistake of getting excited about a candidate who’s a rockstar in terms of skills and experience, but not the right cultural fit or has a behavioral style that won’t work for the role.”

When assessing culture, Waschek has an exercise to help organizations not overly complicate identifying their company values. He has everyone in the room think of a person within the organization that’s a star of their culture—if they could replicate that cultural fit with every hire, they would. Then, each person is asked to list what that person does every day that makes them a star of the company’s culture. Do they work well with others? How do they treat customers? Do they show up every day with a positive attitude?

Once the specific qualities or attributes are identified, then the recruiter can craft questions to sort out candidates that have those qualities.

“Nobody is a 100 percent perfect match,” he said. “But you want to be clear on what you’re getting in a candidate, so there aren’t any surprises on both sides. If a candidate isn’t the right cultural fit, it will be a bad hire, and it could destroy the entire team. It’s also more costly to hire the wrong person than have an open position.”

If you would like to reach out to Mark Waschek, President of Ag1Source, you can find his contact information HERE.