Hiring the best people for your company starts with intentional choices made at every level from management to operations. Amy Goldfinger, Walmart’s senior vice president of talent acquisition, breaks down her methodology into six guidelines that can be applied by businesses of any size.
- Be Consistent
Company culture doesn’t have as much to do with hot-desking and weekly happy hours as much as the processes and values that drive every aspect of your business. From reception to the c-suite, every employee must understand what’s important throughout your company. When a corporate mission and all of the goals established to accomplish it are well-communicated and consistently managed, the content of your job ads, the behavior of your HR staff, and the efforts of your new hires will fall right in line toward reaching your business potential.
- Be Human
Brands are all about the stories they tell. But rather than taking what your marketing department has crafted for customer acquisition and shoehorning it into other purposes, have an actual story and share it. The consistency of your company culture mentioned above is a good place to start. Your people are your story and your story is your brand. Corporations may be considered “people” for some legal purposes, but they need to be human for recruiting purposes.
- Be Diverse
Diversity among your staff doesn’t happen without effort. Be intentional about this from the top down. When company leadership comes from diverse backgrounds, it sets a tone about who it finds valuable as customers and throughout its ranks.
- Get Real
As a very practical effort when learning about your candidates, inquire about past experiences rather than hypothetical situations. Have your candidates share their previous jobs or community involvement. Get specific to discover problem-solving abilities, stress management skills, and general personality traits.
- Seek Diversity
To follow up on Goldfinger’s third guideline, it’s not just important that your staff represents varying ethnicities, genders, economic backgrounds, ages, races, religions, education, and skill levels, your recruiting efforts should attract talent who represent diverse backgrounds, too. Hiring people who are different from you brings in a wealth of new perspectives and creative ideas. From the launch of a candidate search to written job descriptions to interviews to onboarding, make sure you’re hiring for diversity.
- Seek Selflessness
Walmart hiring managers look for altruism in candidates. This catch-all term for selflessness, kindness, and goodwill, is a reminder to seek new hires who truly value the well-being of others. When each employee starts each workday from a place of kindness, it sets a positive tone for co-workers, vendors, and customers, too.
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