Working in Human Resources and having a passion for corporate culture means supporting companies doing their due diligence to weed out any bad hires during the hiring process.  What lengths would a company go to in order to protect their culture?  Recently, a client shared with me a small company’s interview process.  Here are the interesting steps this company takes to ensure their new hires are a match made in corporate culture heaven:

• Who let the dogs out?  Let’s kick off the interview process by interviewing with the furry, four-legged employees.  At this company, if the owner’s dogs don’t like you, you’re in the doghouse.  Maybe not, but you are definetly not getting hired.  

• We want money, that’s what we want.  Or 3 years of W2’s, 2 months of your last pay stubs, and if you filed any 1099’s we would like to see those as well.

• Puff the Magic Dragon lived by the sea.  But he isn’t working for me.  Why?  Because we are putting you through a drug screening test that includes taking hair from the root.

• Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?  To hook up people with jobs and make sure they pass our grammar and mathematical tests, even if the position doesn’t include any math.

• Heal the world, make it a better place.  For you and for me and we won’t have a case.  As in, please sign this mediation document that says you can’t sue us for any reason upon termination.

• It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.  Hope you have been Mr. Rogers nice to your neighbors because our background check includes the names and numbers of your: neighbors, 3 previous bosses, 5 colleagues, any direct report that you oversaw in the past 10 years, any associations or affiliations you have had in the past 5 years, and an investigative consumer report.

• Rate me, rate me again.  As part of the interview process, there’s a personal evaluation in which you must rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 in terms of skills like communication, technological, and teamwork.

Some candidates try and some candidates lie, but this company won’t let them play.  Because we are living in a corporate cultural world, you have to know your material, girl.

Corporate Culture and the Hiring Process

What crazy tests has a company given you as part of the interview process?  Holla!