Finding good employees can be really tedious. It involves time and money spent in advertising for a new role, sifting through applicants, and then spending time in a relatively short interview to gauge whether or not the person will fit well into your company.
Having employees who experience a good job fit will ensure that they bring their best to work every day.
The hiring process is designed to flush out the person who has the right knowledge and ability to perform the role. However, the process of matching a candidate to a role runs much deeper than just checking their years of experience. You have to work out if your applicant is going to be an overall good fit for the job.
What is job fit?
Job fit, or job match, is a concept that explains whether the requirements of the job, and your company culture, align well with the employee’s experience, beliefs and skills. If they do, this is seen as a good job fit.
Why is this important?
Finding the right job fit will not only help your employees feel connected to the business – it will help them establish good relationships with their colleagues, feel supported and engaged, and can help boost productivity, which ultimately helps your bottom line.
What if we get it wrong?
An employee in the wrong position can experience dissatisfaction and burnout and may choose to leave your organisation. Burnout can be experienced in many ways – feeling tired, emotionally drained, or overwhelmed – and it can affect staff both at work and at home. Their performance may suffer, and this can negatively affect those working around them. They may take more sick days, which will have a financial impact.
Identifying a poor job fit before you bring someone on board can save you a lot of time and money, and it can empower the individual to seek out employment somewhere more suited to their needs.
Proactive checks for a good fit
When interviewing a candidate, keep the following key points in mind, as they’ll help you identify whether the person is going to be a good fit, or not.
Experience:
Has the candidate had enough work experience to fully understand the requirements of the role? If not, are you prepared to upskill them? What about life experience – how do they make decisions? If the person is looking to move into an unsupervised role, are you confident they have the knowledge to make the right choices?
Education and Training:
Do they need any formal training, or do they hold the required qualifications? If they need formal training, are you able to provide it?
Cultural compatibility:
What are the person’s core values? Do they align with your company values and those of your customers and staff? If not, you run not only the risk of the individual leaving your organisation, but of ending up with a disengaged employee decreasing productivity and morale within the organisation.
Employee needs:
Everyone has their own motivators. For some, it’s recognition, for others it may be the thrill of a challenge, or the comfort of a routine. Have you identified the needs of the candidate, and will this job and environment meet them? If they have personal needs (e.g. health, family) that may affect their work, can you accommodate those? If not, it’s best to say that up front.
The job itself:
Will this job leverage the individual’s strengths? Are they going to be fully satisfied with the work, and will they be doing things that they enjoy? If they are looking to expand and grow with the company, are you able to offer them promotions or a flexible role?
Once you have dissected the above conversation points, you will be well on your way to knowing with a bit more certainty whether or not your applicant is going to be successful. Having employees who experience a good job fit will ensure that they are happy, productive and bring their best to work every day.
Author – Kate Hay
Customer Service and Technical Support
