Unusual recruitment procedures
The standard hiring procedure is to interview the candidate, sometimes taking place in several stages. Often, testing or other methods of identifying the level of knowledge and skills of the applicant for the position are also added to the interview.
All of us have ever been interviewed, and some of us may have hired employees ourselves. Usual recruitment procedures are quite clear and familiar to us. However, there are companies that have decided to go far beyond the typical interview and have implemented unusual, and sometimes strange, hiring procedures into their hiring system.
Larry O’Toole, head of the Gentle Giant trucking company, uses a special method of testing the endurance of new employees, and even participates in it himself. Newcomers to the company, led by their boss, run around the stands at Harvard Stadium. By example, Larry O’Toole, 59, shows young employees that keeping fit can only improve mental performance.
For Gentle Giant, such races have already become a common procedure that all new employees must go through. The trainees are tested for endurance in the first two weeks of work, no later. Employees who have been working in the company for a long time are also not forbidden to participate in the marathon – about 25% of the staff regularly run in the stands along with the rest. After the races, according to tradition, everyone eats bacon and eggs together and discusses the company’s prospects.
Unusual hiring procedures Many people who come to work for the company are already aware of this mandatory training, O’Toole says. And this does not repel them at all, , it awakens the desire to try their hand at such an unusual “interview”. Larry O’Toole allows only those who pass the test to go to work.
“If a person readily accepted this challenge and passed the marathon as well as others, for me this is a sign that he does not flinch in the face of difficulties and difficult situations in a working environment. And our specialization just involves the presence of non-standard situations almost every working day, ”says Larry O’Toole.
CXtec (telephone and network equipment)
In this company, to establish yourself in a position, you need to go through coffee and donuts. Each new employee is first taken on an internship, which lasts one month. And during this month, interns in pairs should bring their colleagues working in the main office lunch – coffee and fresh pastries.
Those who have not been frightened by this duty and have not caused negative emotions are much more likely to remain working in the company on a permanent basis. The idea of this idea is to enable previously unfamiliar people to quickly find a common language and make friends.
Foot Levelers (Manual Therapy)
When a group of 5-10 new employees is recruited, they are seated in a conference room, provided with soda and popcorn, and the movie “Rudy” is played. This is a drama dedicated to how a famous football player, even if he lacks sufficient physical strength, still succeeds due to his perseverance and will to win. When the film ends, the CEO holds a short interview with each of the interns, asking them what they learned from the film and how they understood the main idea.
The goal of Foot Levelers is to create a staff that will fully correspond to the image of the protagonist of the film, who did not give up no matter what. The film Rudy has become so much a part of the company that employees use phrases from it in their daily speech. And when they face a task, the solution of which does not lie on the surface, but requires deep reflection, they never give up, but act “according to the Rudy method.” It is necessary to always go to the end, and each time ask yourself “Have I done enough to win?”.
CityMax.com (website creation)
The principle of this organization is rather not about the recruitment procedure, but about the way the new employees adapt to the new workplace. Whatever day of the week a newcomer is hired, he will enter the office for the first time only on Friday. On Friday, as a rule, employees are less stressed and preoccupied with business than during the week, and are more ready to communicate with new people.
A real holiday is arranged for each new employee in the office: the room is decorated with colorful balloons, home-made posters are hung on the walls with greetings to the new team member and wishes of success. So between the old-timers of the office and the newcomer, the awkwardness that is usually present during acquaintances is eliminated, and colleagues can freely communicate with each other and get to know the new employee better.
