This might be you

We’re spending a lot of time onboarding people who ultimately don’t align with our values. They’re strong functionally, but they struggle with how we get things done.

We hear this all the time from clients. Hiring people who can do the job well and who naturally align with how your company works is essential — and it often feels harder than it should. The good news is that there’s a clear, practical solution, and we’ve helped many organizations put it in place.

It starts with defining your company values and principles in a way that is accessible, concrete, and easy for everyone to understand. Once those values are clear, they can be intentionally woven into your hiring process through behavioral interviewing.

To make strong hiring decisions, you need to understand two things:

Whether a candidate can do the job technically or functionally
Whether their way of working aligns with your company’s values

Behavioral interviewing allows you to assess candidates based on what they’ve actually done, not what they say they would do. Past behavior is one of the strongest indicators of future behavior.

We partner with clients to review and refine their values, and then build a set of behavioral interview questions tied directly to each value. This gives hiring teams a consistent, reliable way to evaluate alignment.

Example
Company Value: Foster Innovation
Behavioral Interview Question:
“Tell me about a time you repurposed a product or service to meet a need beyond its original intention. How did you identify the opportunity? What limitations did you face and how did you overcome them? What was the impact for the customer or the business?”

I want to hire for values, not just skills but we don’t have a shared way to do that.

This is one of the most common challenges we hear from clients. Leaders know that values alignment is essential, but without a shared approach, hiring teams default to what feels familiar: assessing technical skills and “gut feel.” The result is inconsistency, and candidates who may be strong individually but misaligned with how your organization actually works.

The good news is that hiring for values is absolutely possible, and it becomes far more reliable when you build a clear, structured way to do it.

It starts with defining your company values in a way that is specific, observable, and meaningful to everyday work. When values are concrete rather than conceptual, they can be translated into real behaviors, the things you want to see more of, and the things that signal misalignment.

Once those behaviors are defined, they can be intentionally integrated into your hiring process through behavioral interviewing. This gives teams a shared, consistent method for evaluating two essential dimensions:

Whether a candidate can do the job technically or functionally
Whether their way of working aligns with your values and culture

Behavioral interviewing focuses on what candidates have actually done, not what they say they would do. It brings clarity, fairness, and structure to the process — and it dramatically increases the likelihood of hiring people who will thrive in your environment.

We work with clients to translate their values into clear behavioral indicators and build tailored interview questions for each one. This gives hiring teams a practical, repeatable way to assess alignment. We also help companies to build the necessary support structures around this type of hiring practice to ensure it in itself becomes part of the company culture.

Example

Company Value: Ownership

Behavioral Interview Question:

“Tell me about a time you took responsibility for a problem that wasn’t technically yours to solve. What prompted you to step in? What actions did you take? What was the outcome for the team or the customer?”

I’m not sure people know what our values look like in day‑to‑day decisions.

We hear this a lot. Most organizations have values, but very few have values that people can actually use. When values stay abstract, employees are left trying to interpret them on their own, which leads to inconsistency, confusion, and decisions that don’t always align with the culture you’re trying to build.

The good news is that this is fixable. Values become real when they’re translated into clear, observable behaviors and then woven into the moments that shape the employee experience. When people understand what a value looks like in practice, not just in theory, they can use it to guide decisions, navigate tradeoffs, and collaborate more effectively.

We partner with clients to clarify their values, define what those values look like in action, and embed them into the systems and communication rhythms that guide the organization. The result is a culture where people understand not just what the values are, but how to live them every day. When done well, the employees become the culture carriers for the company.

What a Value Looks Like in Practice

Company Value: Act with Empathy

Under‑used:
Empathy is missing from interactions. People jump to conclusions, respond quickly without seeking context, or prioritize efficiency over understanding. Decisions are made without considering how they impact others, which can lead to friction, rework, or disengagement.

Over‑used:
Empathy becomes over‑accommodation. People avoid hard conversations, hesitate to give direct feedback, or delay decisions because they’re overly focused on how others might feel. The desire to be considerate starts to overshadow clarity, accountability, and progress.

Used Just Right:
People take time to understand perspectives before responding. They balance compassion with clarity, listening fully, asking thoughtful questions, and then making decisions that consider both people and outcomes. Empathy strengthens trust, improves collaboration, and leads to better, more sustainable decisions.

Our internal communications feel flat — they don’t energize or connect people.

When communication feels flat, it’s often because it’s focused on delivering information rather than creating connection.

We help organizations bring their communications to life by making them more intentional, human, and experience-driven. That starts with reframing the goal: not just What do we need to say? but How do we want people to feel, and what do we want them to do as a result?

From there, we design communication that has shape and energy - clear narratives, authentic leadership voice, and moments that invite participation rather than passive listening. We consider different mediums and carriers of the message, as these choices matter and should be strategically considered based on the audience. Importantly, we look at how your culture shows up, so communications feel true to who you are, not generic.

When done well, internal communications become a powerful tool to align teams, strengthen connection, and leave people feeling informed, engaged, and motivated - not just updated.

I’m not sure our all‑hands meetings are landing the way we want them to.

You’re not alone - many organizations invest significant time and resources into all-hands meetings without knowing if they’re truly effective.

We partner with clients to turn these moments into meaningful experiences that deliver real impact. That starts with clarifying your objectives: what should employees think, feel, and do differently afterward? From there, we design meetings that don’t just share information, but actively engage and inspire.

We also help you bring your unique culture to life. All-hands meetings are more than presentations - they’re opportunities for employees to see, hear, and feel what your organization stands for. When thoughtfully designed and executed, these gatherings can strengthen alignment, deepen connection, and leave employees feeling informed, energized, and engaged.

Our hiring process is all over the place. Different interviewers are asking different questions, it’s hard to compare candidates, and I’m not even sure what we’re assessing for.

You are not alone in this. When a hiring process grows organically - different interviewers doing what feels right, questions changing from candidate to candidate, no shared criteria - it becomes inconsistent, hard to calibrate, and nearly impossible to make confident decisions. Even strong candidates can get lost in the noise, and interviewers walk away unsure whether they’re evaluating the right things.

A strong hiring process doesn’t have to be complicated, it just needs to be intentional, consistent, and grounded in the expectations of the role.

Our approach focuses on bringing clarity and structure to every part of the process. We work with clients to review or build a hiring framework that ensures:

Compliance and fairness — a process that is structured, consistent, and defensible
A positive, equitable candidate experience — every candidate gets the same opportunity to show you who they are
Well‑trained, confident interviewers — people who know what they’re assessing and how to assess it
Clear, behavior‑based evaluation criteria — so decisions are grounded in evidence, not gut feel
Aligned, high‑quality hiring decisions — selecting candidates who will thrive in the role and in your culture

A key shift we help teams make is moving away from comparing candidates to each other and instead comparing each candidate to the expectations of the role. That’s where consistency, fairness, and clarity come from. When interviewers know exactly what “good” looks like, they can evaluate candidates against the same standards — and you get far more reliable, confident decisions.

We partner with clients to streamline the entire process: defining what success looks like in the role, building structured interview guides, training interviewers, and creating simple tools that make calibration easier and more consistent. The result is a hiring process that feels aligned, efficient, and capable of selecting the right people for the right reasons.