The Minion Assessment Test
Hiring the right person is hard and no matter what you do to find that right person, it’s still a gamble. It doesn’t matter how many interviews you conduct, evaluations you run them through, or references you call; there is no 100% sure thing. A candidate can breeze through all of your hiring processes and still end up as a bad hire.
It’s not that there isn’t value in these pre-employment steps and frankly, some of them are downright necessary. But until you get a person hired on you aren’t going to know how “right” they are for the role. It’s all part of the game and sometimes you have to take risks.
The worst is when you have a new hire that has superstar skills, but a bad attitude or doesn’t get along with the team. It’s extrememly frustrating, especially for those hard to fill roles. That’s why I sometimes feel like putting together my own pre-employment evaluation based on real office situations, you know, to really gauge “cultural fit”. So for my own amusement, and hopefully yours, here’s my take on some cultural fit questions:
1. You offer to go to the break room to get birthday cake for yourself and a co-worker. When you arrive you see there is only one piece left. Do you a. Bring back the last slice for your co-worker, b. Eat the slice quickly and tell the co-worker it was all gone when you got there, or c. This is a trick question because you’d never offer to bring cake back for a co-worker.
2. You are in the bathroom and the person who just left unrolled enough paper towel for you to use without having to push the lever yourself, thus keeping you from touching a possibly wet and/or germy lever. Do you a. Tear off the paper and then leave, b. Use the paper and then unroll enough for the next person, or c. Walk out without washing your hands.
3. You arrive at work and someone has taken your chair. Do you a. Hunt it down (Because you know YOUR chair), b. Take a new one from an empty conference room, or c. Take your neighbors chair before they arrive?
4. You notice the coffee pot is empty and no one has made anymore. Do you a. Make another pot of coffee, b. Go complain to your co-workers about the office being out of coffee, or c. Walk away because you only drink tea.
5. You are getting on the elevator and see someone hurrying down the hallway clearly wanting to get on as well. Do you a. Hold the door open until they get there, b. Press the door close button repeatedly because you don’t have time to wait for them, or c. Go back to playing with your phone, if they make it, they make it.
Will these questions tell you everything you need to know about the candidate? Of course not. But how your candidate chooses to answer these questions should tell you all you need to know about what they will be like to work with.
