Hiring fast or hiring right? Your culture is at stake

I recently read a recruitment agency post bragging about how fast they placed one candidate with a specific customer.

Something like on Monday, they posted the job offer; on Tuesday, the candidate was hired, and on Wednesday, the candidate started to work.

Ok, maybe I am exaggerating a bit here, but not too much.

The point is that in today’s fast-paced world, especially in technology, companies are desperately looking for new talent to cover their urgent needs…and because you have to give the customer what the customer wants, recruiting agencies to promise unrealistic timeframes to find and hire new candidates.

But I wonder, is that the right approach?

I can’t help but imagine the new night club in downtown advertising something like this:

Come, you will meet today the boy/girl of your dream, you will ask him/her out tomorrow, and you will be married the next day.

What about knowing each other a little bit more before making such a significant commitment?

What about purpose/values alignment? What about expected behaviours and team dynamics?

You can ask a candidate for a code challenge and get a pretty good idea if he/she can do the technical part of the job.

But, will the candidate be a good addition to your culture? Will he/she work well with other team members? Will he/she believe in your values and purpose as a company? Or even more straightforward…will he/she at least understand your purpose, or how are you making the world a better place?

That kind of understanding takes time and effort. It takes intentionality.

Yes, hiring fast is right if you only need to solve an urgent problem and don’t care about the long-term.

But if you care about your team and building something meaningful and long-lasting, you should take time to understand each candidate’s personality, values, purpose and dreams, and not just his/her coding skills.

Will the candidates be happy working in your team? Will they grow and have the opportunity to use their strengths every day at work? Will they make good friends at work?

Hiring fast is not often your best friend. Hire right instead.