The straight-talk summary
Resumes alone don’t tell you what really drives a candidate. If you want to hire people who thrive in your culture and stick around, you need a hiring process that uncovers what motivates them and aligns with what your company offers.
You wrote a job description. You posted it on job boards like Indeed and LinkedIn. Now you’re waiting for the applications to roll in and for the resumes to hit your inbox.
But here’s the problem: Resumes don’t tell the whole story. In fact, most hiring managers spend about 7 seconds skimming a resume, usually just looking at education and experience. That’s not nearly enough to figure out what makes someone tick.
If you want to hire the right people, you need to rethink how you evaluate them.
Someone’s personality, behaviors, and habits (how they actually show up day to day) are some of the best indicators of how they’ll perform. These behaviors are shaped by two kinds of motivation:
- Extrinsic motivation that comes from outside: job role, location, salary, benefits.
- Intrinsic motivation that comes from within: personal values, belief in the mission, respect for the team.
Your job is to understand both so you can hire people who truly fit your culture.
Finding the right fit matters
Finding the right people and culture fit is important, as 97% of CEOs say they won’t hit their goals without the right talent. And you want to keep those people so you don’t get stuck in a frustrating cycle of turnover, especially when nearly 60% of employers admit they can’t plan staffing more than a quarter out.
That kind of uncertainty doesn’t have to be your reality. When you build a hiring process that uncovers what really motivates candidates, you can match the right people to the right roles and build a team that sticks.
Walk through the candidate's journey
Yes, hiring is about filling an open role, but it should also consider what the candidate experiences along the way. Think of their experience like the buyer’s journey:
- Awareness: They spot the job opening.
- Consideration: They check out your website, socials, reviews, and culture.
- Decision: They choose whether to apply.
That consideration phase is where you win or lose great candidates. They’re watching to see if your company is the kind of place they want to work: checking Glassdoor reviews, reading your website and socials, looking for culture, benefits, and hiring information, all to get a sense of your company culture. If they see alignment with their values and goals, they may apply. If not, they’ll move on without a second thought.
Spend time making sure your brand and culture are visible and authentic. If your website doesn’t have a section with hiring and culture information, consider adding one. It’ll help you attract the people you want on your team.
Ditch the checklist interview
Interviews are nerve-wracking for everyone. Candidates want to make a good impression, and employers risk making a rushed decision. Use techniques like:
- Active listening: Stay engaged and present.
- Probing for depth: Follow-up and “why” or “how” questions, like, “You said you managed a project. What was your role in that? How did you manage your team’s workload?”
- Paraphrasing for clarity: Restate their answers to confirm you understand.
Go further by asking open-ended questions that uncover what Predictive Index calls the head, heart, and briefcase:
- Head: personality and behaviors
- Heart: values, passions, and interests
- Briefcase: education, skills, and experience
Some good questions to ask:
- What kind of work environment helps you thrive?
- What motivates you most at work?
- What gets in the way of you doing your best work?
- What does success mean to you?
- What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
Engage other team members in the interview process, letting them meet with potential new team members and have their own set of interview questions (head, heart, or briefcase). Candidates will likely behave differently with different people and people in various roles. Take advantage of this to get the full picture on who this candidate is and how they’ll fit with the team.
And make sure your process is fair. Use an interview guide so everyone gets asked consistent, thoughtful questions, no matter who conducts the interview.
Make better hiring decisions with these tactics
Beyond the interview itself, here are other ways to attract and retain the right people:
- Ask about candidates’ career goals early and show them how you can help them grow with mentorship, training, and advancement opportunities.
- Offer a complete package. Salary matters, but so do benefits like mental health support, flexible schedules, and a culture that respects balance.
- Show candidates they’re seen as people, not roles to fill, and back that up with action.
Hire for what really matters
Hiring the right people isn’t about finding someone who looks good on paper. It’s about uncovering what motivates them and making sure it aligns with your company.
Stop letting seven seconds and a resume decide your team’s future. Start asking better questions, showing off your culture, and building a hiring process that attracts and keeps the right people.
Content published by Q4intelligence
Photo by howtogoto
