Two ways to protect company culture when hiring

Prior to the pandemic, hiring for culture was no easy feat. Fast forward to early 2022, and it is even more difficult. With so many businesses across all industries looking to hire, leaders may be tempted to temporarily lower their standards in an effort to bring on new talent. This temptation should be avoided at all costs, though, because it is a direct threat to a company’s culture. It sounds harsh, but it is that serious for ServiceMaster by Stratos. The importance of hiring for culture is something we hold tightly to, especially during challenging seasons.

Stacy McCall, Stratos’ CEO, has worked tirelessly to create, maintain and protect our strong company culture. She holds hiring those who will contribute to the betterment of that culture and thrive in it at a very high level of importance. At the end of the day, if a team member isn’t happy in their role, they will not be able to serve the customer. To be confident we bring on talent who will succeed in our world, we here at Stratos are laser-focused on a couple of elements.

First up, we have the big C – communication. It’s the driving force behind our culture’s success. We communicate our company culture clearly during the interview process to each and every candidate. In most cases, we and the interviewee both want the interview to result in a hire, making it easy to minimize what appear to be small differences between us. If swept under the rug, those “small differences” can turn out to be big problems down the road, putting us right back where we started.

We also pay close attention to a candidate’s hard skills and soft skills. This seems like an obvious tip, but you would be surprised at how tempting it is to only look at the hard skills a candidate offers when you have several jobs to fill quickly. Hard skills speak to the job-related knowledge and abilities someone possesses. These skills are what make people look good on paper. When hiring for culture, you have to look far beyond the resume, though. To do this, we focus on soft skills, too. Soft skills are personality traits that can’t be taught in the workplace. The ability to collaborate with others, problem solve and adapt to an ever-changing environment like ours are just a few examples of the soft skills we hone in on during the interview process.

Remaining true to who we are at our core, especially when it comes to hiring, has proved beneficial for many years, and 2022 is no different. We encourage all leaders to do the same. Do your hiring practices ensure company culture remains strong and consistent?