What Does It Mean to be a Cultural Fit in the Workplace?

Being a cultural fit in the workplace means aligning with the company's key values, fostering positive team dynamics, obtaining specific skills and embracing shared goals. It involves exhibiting behaviors that resonate with the corporate culture, such as effective communication, collaboration, and adaptability. Job seekers should demonstrate skills that complement the organization's practices and contribute to its growth.

A cultural fit thrives in situations that require a harmonious blend of individual talent and collective success. Understanding and embodying the company's key values, while adapting to its unique approach, ensures a seamless integration into the team and strengthens the overall corporate culture.

Here are some examples to demonstrate the type of person who would not be a good cultural fit:

• An employee who prefers to work alone on projects won’t be able to excel in a workplace that values collaboration.
• A candidate who requires direction and guidance may not be suited to a fast-paced startup where employees are expected to take more initiative.
• A leader who emphasizes command and control over decision-making might struggle with job satisfaction in a collaborative management environment where all employees get a say.

Luckily, there is a wealth of advice online about culture fit assessment so you can ensure that your potential hires will not exhibit the above attitudes, but will instead perfectly align with your company values and current culture. 

Emerging job application process trends to try out

50 of the Best Interview Questions to Assess Culture Fit

Finding the right culture fit that aligns with your company values is essential to create a positive impact on the working environment. To help you with the interview process and ensure you find the right fit for your company, our experts have collated a list of the best culture-fit interview questions to make the hiring process as seamless as possible. 

Motivation and Excitement at Work

• What gets you excited about coming to work?
• What motivates you to do your best work?
• What most appeals to you about this role?
• How will this role challenge you?
• What does a successful company culture look like to you?

Self-awareness and Personal Growth

• What surprises people about you?
• What did you like most/least about your last company?
• How have you changed over the last five years?
• What has been the most valuable lesson of your professional career?
• Describe a time when you exceeded people’s expectations.

Professional Goals and Business Insight

• If you were going to start your own business, what would it be?
• What are your plans for the next five years?
• What three things do you need to succeed in this position?
• What blogs or websites do you visit regularly?
• What role does kindness/empathy/humor play at work?

Communication and Collaboration

• How do you prefer to communicate with coworkers?
• How do you give/respond to critique?
• What three words would a current manager/colleague/direct report use to describe you?
• Would you rather work alone or with a team?
• How do you manage conflict with coworkers?

Company Fit and Values

• How would you describe our company culture?
• Which of our company’s core values do you most/least identify with?
• What superpower will you bring to our company?
• Why did you choose to apply here?
• What would you change about our office/website/hiring process/business model?

Work-Life Balance and Stress Management

• Where/when/how do you do your best work?
• How do you handle stress or tight deadlines?
• What does work-life balance mean to you?
• What’s your secret to productivity?
• What would be your ideal work schedule?

Leadership and Management Style

• How could a manager best support you?
• Describe your dream job.
• How would you describe your leadership style?
• Can you tell us about a leader you’ve worked with that you really admire and why?
• Can you share an example of a time when you collaborated with colleagues from diverse backgrounds to achieve a common goal?
• What management style motivates you to do your best work?

Learning Style and Decision Making

• What type of learner are you? (visual, kinesthetic, etc.)
• Do you prefer to be looped in for every step of the decision-making process or only once a decision is made?
• What’s your decision-making process look like?
• When was the last time you took a risk professionally?
• What advice would you give to someone starting out in your career?

Team Dynamics and Collaboration

• Describe the best/worst team-building exercise you have ever participated in.
• How do you stay organized?
• What would you describe yourself as an introvert or extrovert? Why?
• At this stage in your career, do you see yourself as more of a mentee or a mentor?
• How do you contribute to fostering a positive and inclusive team environment?

Challenges and Mistakes

• When was the last time you made a big mistake at work?
• Can you describe a time you faced a challenge at work and how you handled it?
• What would you change about our office/website/hiring process/business model?
• Would you describe yourself as a leader or a follower?

As you can see, good interview questions to assess culture fit don't focus heavily on the candidate's personality, but rather on their working style and experience. These culture fit questions are meant to ascertain whether a job candidate will both be able to work effectively at your organization and also if they will like working at your organization. One of the common mistakes that employers make when assessing culture fit is looking too closely at the personal or social qualities of a candidate, which have little relevance to whether a person will perform well or not in the role.

 Why you should use culture add interview questions

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Beyond hiring, our comprehensive people management platform is meticulously designed to enhance the onboarding experience, fostering a seamless and enjoyable transition for newly recruited individuals. With a commitment to transforming the recruitment landscape, Rise People stands as a catalyst for efficient talent acquisition and management, empowering organizations to build exceptional teams for sustained success!

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COVID-19 has had a profound impact on professional norms. 

Most notably, it’s changed how most companies view remote work—with many workplaces permanently working from home or using hybrid work models. Once seen as a perk offered by few companies, usually tech start-ups, remote work has now become the new normal. 

If you’re a recruiter or hiring manager with open roles to fill, you might be considering the advantages of remote hiring to help your organization continue to meet department deadlines and revenue targets. You might also be wondering about remote hiring and interviewing etiquette that emphasizes a positive candidate experience. 

1. Revise your job description 

As the saying goes, interviewing is a two-way street. However, top candidates who have in-demand skills or experience can afford to be selective before the interview process. 

A strong job description helps attract top-tier candidates. Mention your work-from-home policies, your remote onboarding process and interview expectations (i.e. if you plan on conducting video interviews or only phone interviews) to give candidates the clearest picture possible and minimize misunderstandings. 

Mention any benefits available to a new employee immediately (for example, some companies enrol a new hire in their group benefits policy beginning with their start date rather than after probation) and any perks your new hire can expect in the office (free beverages and snacks, their birthday off, RRSP employer matching contribution, etc.).

If your organization does still meet in-person—whether full or part-time—describe your workplace and its proximity to transit or local highways/major streets to help candidates visualize their future commute. If you have photos of your office or an employee Instagram, include links in your job description as a way to familiarize candidates with the “vibe” of your headquarters and employees. 

2. Make your hiring process consistent

Put together a list of questions to ask all remote candidates, either during phone screenings or follow-up interviews or both. Share this list with everyone involved in the hiring decision for their input and revise accordingly. 

Record each candidate’s answer while interviewing to help narrow down the list of potential hires in a way that’s quick, concise, and without bias. 

Create a short blurb about the role (including essential skills, day-to-day tasks and core responsibilities) and email it ahead of the interview to each candidate to ensure they have a clear understanding of the role and its responsibilities. 

Then, during the interview, ask candidates to describe the role in their own words to check that everyone is aligned on expectations. 

3. Introduce a longer probation period 

One of the ways to mitigate risk when hiring remotely is to introduce an extended probation period. The rule of thumb is to double your regular probation period. 

An extended probation period can help new employees who are working remotely have more time to get up to speed. It also lessens the chance of imposter syndrome, where a new employee actively doubts their accomplishments and feels unable or ill-equipped to perform their job duties. 

Alternatively, you could incorporate a paid test week into your interview process, where you invite your top candidates to collaborate with your team on a few projects to get a feel for the work and how they fit into your company culture—and offer the role to the most successful candidate. 

4. Offer a delayed start date

If remote onboarding isn’t currently possible or difficult to implement in your organization, another option that can set you up for success is a delayed start date of a few weeks or months. 

Avoid losing out on top talent by making the delayed start date clear in your job description and work with your chosen candidates as much as possible to find a date that also works for them. 

Be aware that you may lose out on candidates who are keen to start as soon as possible, so it’s important to be transparent and minimize the gap between the job offer and the start date as much as possible. 

5. Hire a freelancer in the interim 

If you have an open role that’s critical to fill as soon as possible, consider hiring a freelancer while you continue to look for the ideal candidate. 

Freelancers have experience with working remotely and autonomously, so your onboarding process can be quick and simplified. You also won’t need to screen for cultural fit when hiring a freelancer.

If the role is more suitable for an on-call consultant, prioritize your list of projects and hire a consultant to help advise and finalize launches or implementations. 

6. Consider a permanently remote hire  

If you aren’t finding strong candidates in your immediate area and feedback on remote work has been positive in your organization, consider making the role “permanently” remote. 

Advertise the role nationally (or internationally) to get more applicants and increase your chances of making the best hire possible. Post in niche job boards that specialize in remote hiring such as WeWorkRemotely or Remote.co. 

The post 6 recommended approaches for remote hiring appeared first on Rise.

There are a number of ways quiet hiring happens, but the main one is by giving employees more responsibilities. Quiet hiring doesn’t actually involve any hiring at all. It usually takes the form of either stretching the scope of an employee’s role, having them undergo reskilling, or moving them to a different role entirely.

According to Forbes, the quiet hiring trend is a response to current market conditions such as the “competitive hiring landscape, an economic slowdown, and pressure to keep costs down”. Many organizations are faced with static or decreasing recruitment budgets and are therefore forced to “get creative” and turn to quiet hiring to fill gaps. 

The quiet hiring trend has several benefits for employers. 

The biggest benefit that quiet hiring has for employers is cost-savings. As Forbes explains, quiet hiring “is an efficient, cost-effective way to fill skills gaps without hiring additional full-time workers”. Not having to go through the recruiting process saves both effort and money—not to mention the amount of time it takes for a new employee to be fully onboarded and up to the level of productivity that their role requires. 

Additionally, supporting employees’ growth can have benefits as well. Employees who feel their organization values growth and development are more likely to stay long term. Studies show that organizations with strong learning cultures see 30-50% higher employee engagement and retention than those where learning is not a business priority. 

Forbes discusses how companies like Google use quiet hiring practices as a way to identify current employees who are already going above and beyond in their roles and give them opportunities to excel further. These employees “are more likely to get raises and promotions” in the future. 

Quiet hiring has been going on for a long time, well before it got a trendy name. 

There’s a reason it’s called “quiet” hiring—because it’s something that employers are likely doing on the down-low, i.e. with very little communication of intent to the employee. Although it has some money saving potential and can help employees gain skills they may otherwise not have the chance to, the quiet hiring trend does have some downsides. 

An optimistic way of viewing quiet hiring is that the organization is focused on internal growth rather than on hiring externally. In many instances, employers will frame this as being a team player or refer to the ‘other duties as assigned’ line commonly found in job descriptions. However, much of the time, quiet hiring is done with the expectation that employees will reskill and take on more work without necessarily receiving proper training, recognition, or compensation. 

Because quiet hiring doesn’t always actually mean someone is getting a promotion, it should be a temporary solution to filling skills gaps and not part of the status quo at your organization. Employees that are overworked and underpaid are not likely to stay long, nor are they likely to speak highly of their experience. Consistently filling vacant positions by stretching other employees’ responsibilities is a recipe for creating a toxic work environment.

The post The quiet hiring trend and its impact on workplace culture appeared first on Rise.

There’s been a lot of conversation in the recruitment space lately about certain phrases on resumes that candidates need to stop using—or else. Many hiring managers have claimed that they won’t even consider someone if they have a CV that includes phrases such as “helped with” or “worked on”. 

This advice has good intentions at its root. It’s meant to help job seekers create a more compelling resume, encouraging them to replace passive phrases with more impactful and action-based ones. Hiring managers want to know what an applicant actually did, so instead of non-descriptors like “helped”, candidates are being encouraged to be more clear by choosing verbs like led, managed, or analyzed. 

Human resources consulting firm Randstad advises job applicants against using a straightforward list of all the things they were responsible for as it’s a “boring read”. Instead, they recommend that candidates “use powerful action verbs that describe your accomplishments. Launched, increased, managed, created, implemented, etc. are all much more exciting ways to describe how you contributed to your job”.

With research showing that 24% of hiring managers report spending less than 30 seconds looking at each resume, the “meat” of an applicant’s resume could have a lot of fat trimmed off by removing redundant phrasing.

However, a blanket ban on passive phrasing may not be the best approach, particularly when it comes to for hiring diverse candidates. 

Gen Z’s favourite social media platform, TikTok, is full of video advice regarding phrases on resumes that recruiters hate. The comments section is usually filled with people who are frustrated by the advice. One commenter even writes that “grammatical gatekeeping on perfectly professional and acceptable terms is just elitist and ableist. The system has got to go”.

30 seconds probably isn’t actually enough time to get a thorough impression of a job applicant. 

Whether you’re calling it the Great Resignation, the Great Reset, or any number of other names, the way that people search for jobs—and consequently the way that people hire—has changed. However, many hiring managers and recruiters have been reluctant to adapt. 

It’s a challenge that people are facing across the board—the idea of going back to normal, when the reality is that the world has irrevocably changed. Although the current job market isn’t necessarily in favour of either the applicant or the employer, the status quo in hiring has shifted. Applicants are taking back their power and are tired of feeling like they have to jump through hoops to even get their resume seen for 30 seconds. 

If you’re looking for experience with a specific software or essential part of the job, it should be included in your job application description. 

Expecting candidates to automatically know which phrases on resumes to use (and which to avoid) can increase hiring bias. Simply put, you don’t know what you don’t know. Likely, many seasoned professionals look back on their resumes from early in their careers, or even from a few years ago, and cringe at the things they chose to include, the way they phrased things, the formatting they chose, etc. 

Just like hiring trends, resume trends come and go. What may have been standard several years ago now seems like overused and weak phrasing, when the reality is that the phrases haven’t changed, only our opinions of them. Creating unspoken rules and expectations for phrases on resumes is setting job applicants up to fail. 

If you do have certain expectations for resumes and cover letters, be transparent and include them on your careers page or individual job postings. Here are some examples of things you could ask for:

• Showcase your creativity! We’d love to get a sense of who you are as a person, so feel free to use creative formatting and language to describe your experiences on your resume. 
• Please avoid any industry specific jargon, as it can get lost in translation and we want to make sure we’re speaking the same language.
• We know that you “worked” at your previous roles. Please try to use language that describes the impact of your work. Bonus if you can include metrics and results.

Are there times when the wording used on a resume does matter?

In one word, yes. If the hiring manager doesn’t understand something because of a lack of clarity in the resume, that’s obviously an issue and a reason to move on to the next resume. Candidates should avoid company-specific jargon that may not be commonly understood or job titles that are unclear. 

There are many things about resumes and the hiring process in general that simply aren’t common knowledge. Giving applicants a bit of grace ensures that you aren’t missing out on qualified candidates just because the resume they “worked on” has overused phrasing.

The post Do you weed out job applicants for using certain phrases on resumes? appeared first on Rise.

It’s no secret that recruitment and retention are at the forefront of employers' concerns. Forbes writes that “the pandemic and an ever-widening skills gap are the two most” prominent issues that have been challenging recruiters this year. 

Although there can be a mentality of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” about certain processes, it’s always good to be aware of emerging job application process trends and consider implementing new ways to recruit talent. 

Some job applications include a video component now, asking applicants to submit a short video describing themselves, their experience, and what they would bring to the role. 

Using video as part of job application process trends is meant to enhance screening processes. Together with skills tests, videos can be used to determine if a candidate is a good fit even before the phone screen stage.

Pros of video applications

Including a video requirement can act in place of a screening call, giving your organization initial insights into whether the applicant will be a good fit or not. 

Cons of video applications

A video can be an unnecessary additional hoop for many candidates to jump through and may cost you top talent. Additionally, some applicants may worry that their appearance—whether that means just wanting a certain look, or potentially even race or gender presentation or age—will play a part in your decision to move forward with their application and could open up your organization to discrimination issues. 

Many organizations are now including a step-by-step timeline for their hiring process. 

Providing job candidates with insights into how the hiring process works within your organization helps promote transparency—and it’s a job application process trends that may pay off the most for your organization. 

Pros of interview timelines 

Providing more clarity during the hiring process can demonstrate a positive company culture. Potential employees will appreciate the ability to be extra prepared for their interviews and the insights you share will create realistic expectations about how long the hiring process takes and keep candidates engaged instead of accepting other offers when they don’t hear back from you.

Cons of interview timelines

By nature, a hiring timeline is an ideal state, and may not be what’s realistic for every process or role, not taking into account any scheduling or personal issues with your recruiter or hiring manager. Because of this, your timeline may be inaccurate and cause potential employees to feel misled. 

Many organizations do panel interviews, where potential managers and coworkers are included and able to ask questions. 

This is a common practice in many industries and workplaces, but is becoming more widely used across the workforce as a means of streamlining hiring processes. 

Pros of panel interviews

Using a panel-style interview gives candidates the chance to meet potential colleagues and/or direct reports and in turn, gives your teams the opportunity to ask questions and have a say in who joins them. Additionally, a panel interview does away with the cumbersome, multiple interviews process. 

Cons of panel interviews

Many job candidates struggle with the interview process even when it’s the more traditional one-on-one style, so a panel interview can be extra daunting. There’s also the risk of “too many cooks”, where there are just too many opinions and it becomes difficult to discern how a candidate actually did and whether they will be a good fit or not.

The post Emerging job application process trends to try out appeared first on Rise.

According to a recent study of 15,000 job seekers, “more than one-quarter of those who left work [during the Great Resignation] are reconsidering whether they made the right move”. With many people finding the job market increasingly insecure due to the potential incoming recession, 42% of employees who left their jobs in the last year and switched roles or industries “say that it hasn’t lived up to their expectations”.

With all that in mind, is it worth rehiring a boomerang employee if they decide they want to return to their former position?

While it was taboo just a few decades ago to rehire an employee who previously quit, industries are now becoming more accepting of hiring boomerang employees. 

There are certain advantages to hiring former employees, just as there are disadvantages. Most notably, boomerang employees are what Glassdoor calls informed candidates: candidates who are “well-researched and engaged with your company, which means he or she will turn out to be the right fit and—once hired—get onboarded faster and exhibit greater productivity”.

There are many advantages to hiring boomerang employees. One advantage in particular is that they require less training.

Unless your company underwent a merger or significant culture changes, a boomerang employee is familiar with your organization. They know your policies, understand your corporate culture and values, and don’t need to ask anyone where to find the washroom. 

Since a boomerang employee has past knowledge of the inner workings of your company, they’ll require less onboarding time and less training, meaning they can be productive quicker. The return-on-investment (ROI) of a boomerang employee is higher than that of a new hire who’s unfamiliar with your organization, making boomerang employees a cost-effective choice.   

Boomerang employees have also gained more experience and new knowledge since they last worked at your organization, and might give you insights into processes or policies that ultimately benefit your organization. 

A boomerang employee can also be your poster child for retention since they’re proof that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side (or at another company). 

A boomerang employee is, to borrow a legal term, a flight risk. Since they’ve quit once before, they’re more likely to quit again.

Hiring a former employee has its advantages. However, there are some disadvantages too. 

Before making an offer to a boomerang employee, consult your exit interview notes or former managers to learn why the employee quit. If the issue(s) still persist at your organization, a boomerang employee won’t be your best hire. 

There’s also the possibility that a boomerang employee brings “bad blood” back into your organization, negatively impacting the morale and productivity of the rest of your team. A fresh hire, however, has the opportunity to forge new connections and positively contribute to the team dynamic. 

And while a boomerang employee may have prior knowledge of the role and your organization, your needs or requirements may have changed—meaning that a boomerang employee may not be the best fit anymore. 

You should ask lots of questions to your potential boomerang employee to better understand their thinking. 

If a former employee wants to return to your organization, you can use the following or similar questions to better understand their mindset: 

• What made you want to return at this time?
• Are there any unresolved issues with former coworkers?
• How have you increased your skill set since you left?
• Have you kept in touch with anyone from our organization?
• What are your expectations regarding the role? 

You can also ask trusted individuals in your organization for their insights on an employee you’re thinking of rehiring. People who interacted with the former employee may have knowledge you don’t—knowledge which may convince you to either rehire them… or put them on a permanent do-not-hire list.

If there was tension previously, you could risk losing other employees if you bring back a boomerang employee. It’s important to understand both why an employee left your organization and why they want to come back before making your decision. 

A company-wide policy on boomerang employees can help provide guidance and clarity on your hiring processes. 

Your policy can either be to ban the hiring of former employees or have it occur on a case-by-case basis, which gives you more flexibility to either hire or turn down past employees.  

When an employee quits, you can introduce the possibility of them returning at a later time. Invite them to reapply to suitable positions in your organization but be clear they’ll be considered together with other candidates rather than be a shoo-in for the role. 

A former employee can recommend job openings to their network, helping you find strong candidates and reduce the time it takes for you to hire someone. 

Traditionally, former employees are just that: former, with no ties to the company except through LinkedIn connections and coworkers-turned-friends.

However, they can be more than that.

They could also become your client or a brand ambassador, particularly if their reasons for quitting had nothing to do with the quality of your product or services. 

Former employees are most likely still working in the same industry and they can unlock resources and knowledge that your current employees might not have access to. 

An alumni network helps former employees stay aware of your company’s successes and future goals and gives them the opportunity to contribute. It’s also a passive candidate pool for your organization and helps strengthen your employer brand as an organization concerned with the advancement of its people, current and former. 

Alumni networks can be as simple as an email list that sends relevant updates to former employees, including new opportunities, changes in management or other company news that can help them onboard even faster should they decide to rejoin your organization. 

While there’s some inherent risk to consider when hiring boomerang employees, with the current labour market it may be a risk worth taking.

The post What you need to know about hiring boomerang employees appeared first on Rise.

It’s strange how often mythology makes its way into modern vernacular. Unicorn companies are companies valued at over $1 billion dollars. Centaurs are a relatively new concept, and they’re the companies that have over $100 million in annual recurring revenue. We also have the non-magical ponies: companies valued at over $10 million. 

But there’s another unicorn in the work world—the ideal job candidate. 

Like the unicorn, the perfect job candidate is a myth. However, that doesn’t stop managers from continuing their search for the unicorn job candidate, even at the expense of filling the role. 

While it may seem reasonable to want to fill vacancies with the perfect employees, you may actually be discouraging strong candidates from applying. Candidate engagement company ConveyIQ writes that “unicorn job descriptions often include overly-specific skill sets or unclear job requirements that can exclude or discourage perfectly qualified applicants”.

We’ve all likely seen posts about bad job descriptions with unmeetable standards, such as asking for 5 years of experience in a software that’s only been in existence for 3. It’s important that requirements for a role are not only reasonable, but realistic. Recruiters and leaders should also keep in mind that many skills can be taught on the job—whereas soft skills, such as critical thinking and being a team player, can’t be taught. 

If you find yourself trying to find that perfect unicorn job candidate, ask yourself why you’re searching. 

Your answer might be something obvious, such as “We want the perfect candidate to fill this role so we don’t have to complete the search process again in a few months or even years”. If that’s your answer, however, you may have to dig a bit deeper. 

It’s a given that no one wants to hire and train someone only for them to be a mismatch or end up leaving after only a short period of time, but if that’s happening consistently at your organization, you may need to evaluate why. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Do our job descriptions and interview processes accurately reflect the roles we are hiring for?
• Do our job descriptions and interview processes accurately reflect our organization as a whole?
• Is our onboarding and training process setting employees up for success?
• Do we offer fair compensation for the role?
• Are there opportunities for growth within the role and within our organization?

Answering no to any of the above questions may indicate that employees are leaving your organization due to the work environment itself and/or in favour of a better opportunity elsewhere—not because they’re not the perfect fit for the role. 

Figure out what a job candidate must have in order to be successful in a role and work backwards from there. 

If you find yourself and/or your team getting bogged down in what the perfect unicorn job candidate looks like, you’re likely losing sight of the actual job description. Knowing how to write a job description that is succinct and accurately represents the role and your company is integral to ensuring that you attract quality candidates. 

Sit down with the reporting manager for the role and go over specific duties to gain a clearer understanding of the scope of the job. If they say that the role will include researching and writing at least two blog posts a week, that may translate to experience in “Writing and researching on a diverse range of topics and working around tight deadlines”. These skills, which directly relate to the role and work itself, are realistic and attainable for applicants.

It’s important to know what your unicorn job candidate looks like. It’s also equally important to know that it may be a feat of mythological proportion to actually find them. Set realistic expectations, invest in thorough onboarding and training, and work on creating a company culture that supports employees throughout their entire employee journey.

The post Why your unicorn job candidate should stay a mythological creature appeared first on Rise.

Good Hire defines a job hopper as “a candidate who jumps or hops from job-to-job and has short stints with several employers [and] those short stints are defined as spending one to two years at each job, but some classify job hoppers as people who spend less than five years with the same company”. Some may even consider employees who lose their jobs from company restructurings or insolvencies to be job hoppers—particularly in industries prone to higher failures such as tech. 

With employers often thinking of their employees as investments, it’s not unfair to view job hoppers as a bad investment. New employees are a costly endeavour, with LinkedIn research showing that it can take upwards of $3000 just to onboard each new employee. Research also shows that “it can take between three to eight months for employees to become fully productive.” 

If loyalty is important to your organization—like it is to most—job hopping might seem like a red flag. 

Job hopping, of course, isn’t about loyalty. Job hoppers are simply searching for a better fit, whether that means compensation, culture, or opportunities for growth. 

Research has shown that millennials in particular are frequent job hoppers, with 49% of millennials saying that they’re “willing to quit their jobs within two years if they are unhappy, under-compensated, and have little-to-no career advancement or professional development opportunities”. Additionally, 75% of millennials believe that changing jobs frequently has helped them advance their careers.  

Ultimately, it’s up to the hiring manager to determine whether short tenures at different jobs will impact the employee’s ability to do the role they’re applying for. The best course of action? Ask the job candidate to explain their resume a bit more in-depth and address any concerns you may have directly with them during the interview. Their response should provide the insight you need to decide if their job hopping may be an issue in the future. 

If you’re really concerned about job hoppers in your organization, you should evaluate what you’re doing to retain employees. Do you offer competitive compensation and benefits? Are you offering opportunities for advancement and development? How is your diversity? There’s nothing you can do to force someone to enjoy the work or fit in if they just don’t, so they may naturally “hop away” regardless, but it’s always a good starting point to address any concerns your current employees may have. 

While job hoppers used to be viewed quite negatively, hiring one (or at least giving them a chance at interviewing) may be more reward than risk. 

Zapier writes that job hopping is “becoming fairly standard—and even common practice—among Gen Z'ers who leverage the high demand for employees to earn a better living and develop new skills”. Job hoppers are likely learning a lot in their short stays with different companies—particularly if they're working across a variety of different industries. 

Additionally, each company presents a new way of doing business—different policies, procedures, and personalities to contend with. Working for a wide range of organizations  likely means that a job-hopping candidate is quick to adapt, and also confident when it comes to their skills and decisive regarding their needs as an employee. 

Adaptability, confidence, and decisiveness are the biggest positive aspects of job hoppers. They’re willing to explore a variety of different options, but also aren’t going to stick it out if a job just isn’t a good fit. They know what they want—and especially what they don’t want—and likely won’t waste their time or yours.

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“Thank you so much for your time! I loved learning more about your organization and think my skills would make a great addition to the team. I look forward to hearing from you”. These post-job interview sentiments, summarized in a thank-you note (which is now often an email), might be the difference between hiring a candidate and passing on them. 

Research has shown that “63% of recruiters reported being more likely to hire someone who was angling for a higher salary but sent a thank-you note than someone who wanted slightly less money but didn’t bother to express gratitude”. Additionally, the same study found that “only 26% of entry-level job candidates typically send a thank-you note after a job interview”. 

Many people genuinely feel that a post-interview thank-you note is what separates a great candidate from a good one. 

An Ask a Manager reader recently wrote in to Alison Green asking about the importance of sending a thank-you note after a job interview. The reader is a relatively new hire in an HR role at a small company and has found that many of their colleagues put a lot of weight on whether a candidate sends a thank-you note after a job interview. 

The reader asked if they should potentially warn candidates ahead of time about the thank-you note requirement in order to help even the playing field for otherwise-qualified candidates. Alison agreed that this was a good idea, and mentioned considering having a conversation with the hiring managers to call out the “broader cultural baggage with the practice” of thank-you notes and how “it can be a real equity issue”. 

Alison also wrote in a Twitter thread about managers who refuse to continue considering candidates who don’t send a thank-you note after a job interview, noting that the practice discriminates “against candidates from backgrounds where they don't get this kind of job search training, which has nothing to do with skills & ability to excel on the job. I like thank-you notes but making them a requirement is a terrible practice”.

Essentially, if a thank-you note is what’s used to determine which candidate should be offered the role, the hiring manager needs to revisit the must-have qualities and skills of the role. 

A thank-you note is a courtesy, not a necessity. There can be exceptions, of course, in roles where that type of courtesy might be an asset that a hiring manager should take into account, for example in any communication or public relations role. A thank-you note, however, should never be the deciding factor. 

Also worth mentioning is that the power in hiring has shifted. Whether you’re calling it the Great Resignation or the Great Reckoning, candidates have more choice than ever before.

Many organizations do not extend the same courtesy of thanking candidates for their time, let alone letting them know when they have made their decision. Expecting a job candidate to send a thank-you note after a job interview—and hinging your hiring decisions on that formality—is misguided, and you could be missing out on otherwise great hires by getting caught up in the rigamarole of the hiring process.

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It’s not entirely uncommon for job candidates to stretch the truth a little in their application. It’s part of the art of resume writing and interviewing. In fact, one survey found that “a whopping 78% of job applicants lie and 66% of hiring managers say they would likely ignore the infraction”. Research shows that some of the most common lies on resumes and in interviews are having mastery of a skill that’s barely used, claiming to have worked longer at a company, and having a higher GPA (grade point average). 

None of these infractions, or white lies, are terribly egregious. However, hiring a job candidate who lied on their resume can come with risks. Is the candidate trustworthy? Are they still capable of doing their job? Can you rely on their judgement? There are many different factors to consider. 

First, your organization needs to figure out its ‘line in the sand’ for potential lies on resumes and in interviews. 

Do you know the difference between fraud and stretching the truth? Is there a difference?

The line between a minor embellishment and an outright lie is a thin one. There’s certainly a difference between exaggerating involvement on a project (e.g. saying they led the project when really they just contributed to it) and saying they have a masters and 10 years’ experience when they really only have a diploma and a significant amount of gumption.

There are obviously legal ramifications if a person has lied about their credentials, particularly in certain industries. A medical doctor can’t legally see patients—or even call themselves an MD—if they don’t have a medical license. Similarly, many financial roles have certain certifications that can’t be faked. Before deciding what you should do internally, you need to make sure that you know all of your regional regulations regarding qualifications and labour laws. 

Beyond specific qualifications that people must have to effectively do their job, what’s the line between a relatively harmless lie and an employee who is entirely untrustworthy?

It’s essential to verify a job candidate's credentials, especially as remote hiring increasingly becomes the norm. 

Thorough background and reference checks are crucial safeguards against bad hires. Ideally, checks are completed before offering an employee a contract or included as a contingency in their offer of employment. If you suspect you may have a job candidate who lied on their resume, completing reference checks should either alleviate or confirm your suspicions. 

However, there’s always the chance that even their references are fake—either completed by a friend, family member, or even by themselves. HR might not always be able to pick up on false references, but as a general rule, Alison Green of Ask a Manager advises that “when you have reservations about a candidate, take those seriously. ‘Not great, but could work’ is not enough to hire someone in most situations”.

So you did multiple interviews and checked references and found the perfect hire. But you’re starting to suspect that you may have hired a job candidate who lied on their resume. What now?

No one wants to get caught in a lie and no one wants to be accused of lying when they haven’t. The first thing you have to do is be certain that your new employee obtained employment through less-than-honest means. 

A recent Ask a Manager story featured an employee who appeared to be a completely different person than the person who  originally interviewed for the role. This type of switcheroo is apparently not uncommon in IT roles, especially if they’re remote. 

Before HR could confront the new hire about his qualifications, he quit and was never heard from again, so it’s unclear if it was a case of someone who was just unqualified or someone looking to steal confidential information. 

Ask a Manager’s Alison Green responded by saying that it’s a difficult situation because while you “need to address it by being forthright and direct if the person you hire doesn’t seem to have the skills they appeared to have in the interview, which is something good managers should do regardless, it’s easy to fall into thinking maybe the person is just still adjusting to the role and then suddenly you’re two months in with someone who was never going to be able to do the job because they Cyrano de Bergerac’d their interview”.

So, first things first: sit down with the employee—and HR if appropriate—and gently express your doubts. Consider framing it more as “We have some concerns about your performance and qualifications. We just want to touch base with you and see if we can provide some support or if there’s maybe something else going on”, rather than “We suspect that you lied. Confess!”. 

Being forthright is generally the best approach, and hopefully the employee will admit that maybe they were overconfident in some of their abilities. If the employee still insists they are the best person for the role, you have to decide if they truly are a good fit and someone that you can trust on your team. Ultimately, no matter what you decide, make sure you’re familiar with your region's employment and dismissal laws.

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