6. How to interview people for culture fit using the VBQ framework

In this episode, I share how to implement the VBQ framework to increase your chances of hiring people who actually align with your culture.

Ultimately, to increase the chances of an interviewee aligning with your culture, you need to be able to address the following questions in your company:

1. What are our company values?
2. What three behaviours emulate each company's value?
3. What questions will trigger whether someone defaults to our value-linked behaviours?

Read the LinkedIn newsletter or watch it on YouTube today.

Transcript

0:00

If you were asked to create the questions for an upcoming interview session for a job opening, where would you start? Odds are you would start with the questions surrounding the skills that you expect of that particular candidate, but we also need to make sure that those interviewees are aligned to our company culture, and this is kind of where I found it really can get difficult. So in today's episode, I want to take you through what I call the V B Q framework. we've all probably even heard of these interesting ways in which to interview for culture fit in a company. So informally, people may take you out for drinks and, maybe you're gonna find your true self there in terms of whether they're gonna align to the culture or not. Uh, or you go through rigorous personality testing because they've got the personalities of the existing team members and they wanna see the team chemistry. So there's quite a different approach and, and I don't necessarily think there's this perfect approach to this, but what I wanna share is this V D Q framework where. I've implemented for a couple of years and it's really helped us ensure that we increase the probability of an interviewee aligning to our culture, therefore not wasting their time in terms of them actually joining us, as well as not wasting our time in hiring the wrong person. And V B Q stands for value, behaviour and question. And so ultimately what this means is that, number one, we need to make sure that we know the company values, right? What are our company values, which I'll get into now. Then second, we need to make sure that we know the default behaviours linked to those values. Alright, so the default behaviours that we expect on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis from our team members, because that is the way in which we emulate the values. And then lastly, we need to make sure that we have questions that will trigger whether someone is going to default to that behaviour, and in other words, then align to the culture. So let's just jump straight into number one, which is what are our company values? Simon Sinek is a genius at this and he basically describes it perfectly whereby values cannot be nouns in a business. So, for example, you've probably seen integrity, honesty, and all these other types of nouns, especially within the corporate environment. And a lot of the times the marketing team comes up with it more so than anything. And so the, the whole point here is to make sure the company values are verbs or call it doing phrases. So instead of honesty, it can be, we're always honest, even when it's uncomfortable. And so what this means is that it's far more practical and also people can visualize this. And so Simon always shares an example where if he came to you and said, if, um, you know, if you can just gimme some more honesty today, that wouldn't necessarily be like relatable to anyone. But again, going with the, the doing phrase, if you then said to them, listen, for this upcoming meeting today. If you can just make sure we're honest even when it's uncomfortable.'cause I know there might be a lot of pressures that is far more relatable. And so the whole point here is to make sure our company values are not nouns, but are actually doing phrases. And to give a practical example here, At Search Kings Africa, we've got one value, which is, say it how it is. And if you know this podcast and it's called Candid, you'll know that I try my best to live up to being candid. And so say it How it is for me was a complete alignment when it comes to that. And so value that I'm gonna work with today is say how it is and we're gonna take this through the V B Q framework. Now moving on to the second component, which is behaviour. We need to have at least three behaviour statements linked to one of the values. And remember that behaviour, the meaning of behaviour is how we conduct ourselves, especially towards others. So we need to ensure that these behaviour statements that we come up with are what people, or of what we expect people to default to in our company. Again, linked to those particular values. And just to continue with the example around our value at our company, say how it is, I'm gonna share then the three behaviour statements that we have in our business. The first is we give actionable feedback aiming to assist the person receiving it. The second is we receive feedback with gratitude and let our actions reveal our response to that feedback. And then the third is we lean into candid feedback even when it's uncomfortable. And so if we take these three behaviour statements that are linked to the value set out is. We now can move into the third component, which is to create the questions in order to trigger whether someone is going to start describing how they would naturally behave in a setting. A quick disclaimer before we continue, this whole approach is not foolproof. It's not 100% complete, as in all we're trying to do here is increase our chances at hiring an individual that is going to be aligned to our culture. Okay, so onto the third component, questions. So now we need to make sure that we have questions linked to the specific behaviour statements. And I recommend that you only have a max of three questions for every behaviour statement. And remember, you've got a max of three behaviour statements for every value. Now in terms of the example that we've been going with, I'm just gonna carry on with that and use the third behaviour statement around candid feedback, leaning into it. And so then the first question that we have in our business is, , you know, a colleague has made a mistake. You're the only one that has identified this as well as them, and they're coming up for a performance review. What do you do? That's the first. Then the second is, What would you do if your boss was really excited about a particular idea and you think it is terrible? And then finally, do you believe that positive feedback grows you professionally or is it constructive, yet, critical feedback. Now, these three questions that I've shared; they provide the opening for you to begin the real debate or conversation with the interviewee. In other words, you need to ensure that the follow-ups are actually created as well as, and when you're going through those questions with that interview. So when I'm asking someone a question, I'm really focused in on those follow up questions because, I would argue that there are just as, if not even more important than the original question because you're able then to see whether someone is answering you because they're trying to think of the right answer that they think you would like versus actually what they would naturally do. So the follow-up questions place a little bit of pressure, a little bit of non-routine, to the actual conversation. To give you an example, a lot of people after responding to the first question around, you've got your colleague that you've identified the mistake, what would you do? They would answer it around, yeah. I would go to them and I would discuss it with them, and then I say, okay, cool. How would you go to them? Is it WhatsApp? Is it email? Is it meeting them? Uh, if they are remote, what would you do? And so all of a sudden you create this what if scenario and really ask for clarity on certain points. And then you even can ask them, okay, what do you mean by this? Why would you actually choose this? And you're not necessarily trying to get to an end answer. You're trying to see exactly how they would think and then behave within a certain situation. Again, you're trying to assess whether they're actually going to emulate the behaviours that we have in our company as well. And so that's the V B Q framework. So very, very simple. I hope that you apply that, and just to give you a quick bonus tip here, um, what we do at SearchKings™ Africa is we've got a four interview structure. And so what that means is our first interview is always a technical interview by the head of the department. It's around 30 minutes. It's online, really just focusing on the technical side of things. And then the second interview is the culture interview. I personally take that culture interview and just like I've described to you now, use the V B Q framework and we've got our questions. I don't ask all the questions, but I really hone in where I want to test. And then the third interview, if they are successful in the culture interview, then it's a practical assessment. That can be anywhere between 45 to 60 minutes, um, specific to the, the role that they're of course applying for. And then, if that goes well, we have the final one with our founder and that's really focused in, in person, our offices or even informally at, for breakfast or anything like that. And what I always say is that those first three interviews are focused on trying to identify why you should employ this person. And then the fourth interview by the founder, by a c e O or whoever you wanna, you know, be the true custodian overall the culture, which normally is that particular, um, person, they're actually trying to determine why they shouldn't employ the person. And so that natural tension then when we, when we come to a position where we talk about whether we are happy or not, that's really creates a healthy tension. And if there are disagreements, we have to then, um, justify what our thinking is. And I think that's always a great way to make sure that you're making the right decision for the team and not just getting, uh, natural bias or anything like that. To recap, I highly recommend you use the V B Q framework, looking at values, behaviour, and then creating questions to trigger whether an interviewer is going to naturally opt for a particular behaviour in terms of their conduct, when you place them into a specific scenario. Hope that you enjoyed this episode and see you in the next one.