How to know the values of a candidate?

In order to know the values of a candidate, different possibilities are available to you:

Personality tests

Used in addition to a job interview, personality tests allow you to learn more about the character of the candidate, his deep values, his way of acting, etc. All this, even if these character traits are unconscious or tend to be hidden. The goal is to discover strengths, weaknesses, soft skills, to define whether the candidate is able to adapt correctly to your environment.

Affinity recruitment

This form of recruitment focuses directly on the match between the candidates and the company, in particular through their common values. The company will therefore mainly target candidates who correspond to its culture.

Predictive recruitment consists of testing your most efficient employees in order to define a few target profiles that could correspond to your company. However, this strategy only works for fairly large companies. Indeed, in order to be able to analyze your staff in a relevant way and in different positions and sectors of activity, your company must be sufficiently developed.

Co-option consists in recruiting a candidate on the basis of recommendations. That is to say that employees or other people in the company’s network will recommend candidates they know. The manager therefore bases his recruitment on the trust he places in his employees, who themselves place their trust in the recommended candidate.

Reference checks

In order to know who you are dealing with and if you can trust a candidate, take references. In other words, contact the candidate’s former employers or managers. They have had experience working with your candidate and will therefore tell you more about their behavior and personality. You can also ask targeted questions based on your observations.

Finally, the personality of the candidate is extremely important and must be in line with the culture of your company. Indeed, although diplomas, knowledge and experience are important (they explicitly reveal the skills that a candidate has), personal qualities are much more difficult to discern.

How to gauge the match between the values of a candidate and those of the company?

To be able to gauge the adequacy between the candidate’s values and those of your company, the candidate’s thought patterns and beliefs must be in agreement with those of the company.

To do this, you must first define your values. Indeed, without structured and clearly defined values, you will not be able to know exactly which types of profiles correspond to you. You can then define the different characteristics that you expect or are looking for in a candidate.

Then you can, here too, use a personality test or at least help you with the questions of the test. The objective is to know how to discern the character traits of a candidate (ability to work in a team, to manage a team, to be versatile, autonomous, benevolent, daring, etc.) while establishing whether or not this can correspond to your corporate culture.

Personality is usually more important than a candidate’s skills and knowledge. Indeed, the personality is anchored and therefore difficult or even impossible to change. While skills and knowledge are acquired quite quickly and continuously.

This is one reason why often, when recruiters have not sufficiently taken into account the personality of the candidate, they end up with a mismatch between the employee and the company. This then leads to a premature departure of the employee or a dysfunction in the company, which is in any case negative. However, if relations within the company deteriorate, this will inevitably deteriorate the quality of work of your employees and therefore your results.

Mastering Technical Skills: Examples and Their Relevance in the Modern Workforce

List of values for a job interview

Almost all of the people who have ever had to go through a job interview to obtain a job have had to face this question: what are your values or which values are particularly close to your heart?

Of course, to answer this question, you have to be honest and not necessarily try to answer perfectly. Anyway, the perfect answer to this question does not exist.

However, in order to help you identify your own values (moral, personal or professional), we offer here a non-exhaustive list of the values that can be mentioned during a job interview:

1. Authenticity
2. Authority
3. Autonomy
4. Respect
5. Reliability
6. Sense of responsibility
7. Compassion
8. Audacity
9. Curiousity
10. Creativity
11. Determination
12. Honesty
13. Loyalty
14. Optimism
15. Adaptability
16. Competitive spirit
17. Self-confidence
18. Availablity
19. Dynamism
20. Team spirit
21. Reactivity
22. Sens of observation
23. Risk appetite
24. Tolerance
25. Perseverance

This list of values is not absolute or universal in itself. However, it can be used as a guide to determine what a candidate can hope to bring to the job he wishes to land.

The Power of Soft Skills: Examples and Their Impact on Success

Talking about your values in a job interview: a mutual interest for the candidate and the interviewer?

What if the question of values during a job interview was beneficial for both the candidate and the recruiter? It appears that this personal subject concerns both the candidate and the structure seeking to fill a vacant position.

The candidate can make the difference on the other applicants

Indeed, with equal professional skills and more or less identical CV, personal values are a way for the candidate to stand out from the others. He can thus present what he has most personal to offer for the position for which he is applying by asserting his own and less stereotyped identity.

The interviewer ensures that the values of the candidate and those of the structure are compatible

Companies are increasingly displaying their own values in order to forge a clear identity with the public and consumers. Work, ecology, respect for the environment, dynamism, cultural diversity, creativity, reliability, empathy, success, aesthetics, well-being, these are all values that companies now highlight in their communication.

Also, during a job interview, the latter will first and foremost want to recruit the candidate who will be able to carry and convey the values specific to the company. We can therefore consider that the interest of addressing the question of values is interesting for the candidate and for the recruiter.

To best prepare for your interview, also think about how to answer the following question: what are your motivations? A question that may seem trivial but requires a minimum of preparation. Or see the most common interview trick questions.

Photo powered by Midjourney

Tips for Recruitment to Build your Dream Team

Ready to get started?

Are you a consultant? If you are a consultant and wish to contact us for any reason, we invite you to click the ‘Let’s Get in Touch’ button to connect with our team and receive the necessary assistance.