Why your last hire didn’t work out

If a past hire didn’t work out, it’s easy to assume you got unlucky, or that the person simply wasn’t as good as they seemed on paper. However, we commonly see a different reason, which is that the recruitment process leaned almost entirely on the CV and background, and personality/ team fit never really got tested, until it was too late to do anything about it.

A lot of hiring managers assume the CV tells you most of what you need to know. Somebody has strong experience, the right qualifications, a career path that makes sense on paper, and it feels like the decision’s basically made before the interview even starts. But that’s exactly how someone can look completely right on paper and still not work out once they’re actually in the team.

The trouble is, skills get someone through the door, but fit is what determines whether they’re still there in six months doing a good job. Here’s how to actually build that into your process, so you can spot it before you make an offer, rather than working it out a few months in.

Signs it’s a fit issue rather than a skills issue

If you’ve had a hire not work out before, it’s worth checking whether any of the following were true, because it can be a pretty reliable signal that the process was too CV-led:

• They could do the job but never really gelled with how the team operates day to day
• They needed more managing than expected, not because they lacked ability, but because their working style clashed with yours
• Other team members started avoiding giving them work or information
• They hit their objectives but morale around them dipped anyway

Five questions that establish fit, not just skills

So, what can you do to avoid it happening with your next recruit?

Well, we suggest adding these five questions alongside your usual skills-based questions. The key thing is what you’re listening for matters as much as the question itself.

1. “Tell me about a time you disagreed with a manager. What happened?” Listen for how they handled the disagreement itself, not whether they were right. You’re checking whether they can push back constructively or whether it turns into conflict or silent resentment.
2. “What kind of team environment brings out your best work?” Compare their answer honestly against your actual team, not the team you wish you had. A candidate who thrives on structure won’t do well in a chaotic, fast-moving setup, however skilled they are.
3. “Describe how you’d want feedback on a piece of work that wasn’t quite right.” This tells you a lot about how coachable they’ll be, and whether your management style is going to work for them.
4. “What’s something that’s frustrated you in a previous team?” People usually answer this more honestly than you’d think. Listen for whether the thing that frustrated them is a thing your team does regularly.
5. “Who did you work best with in your last role, and why?” This showcases their actual working style far better than asking them to describe it directly.

A simple way to score it

After the interview, before you look at the CV again, score the candidate from 1 to 5 on three things:

• Team fit – would they naturally slot into how your team already works
• Management fit – would they respond well to how you manage people
• Motivation fit – does what drives them line up with what the role actually offers day-to-day

If a candidate scores well on skills but poorly across all three of these, that’s worth pausing on, even if the CV looks great.

What to do when skills and fit pull in different directions

If you’re weighing up a candidate who’s stronger on paper against one who feels like a better fit, it’s rarely a straight choice. Skills gaps are usually trainable within a few months. Fit gaps tend to get worse over time, not better, because they’re baked into how someone works rather than what they know. That’s generally the more useful thing to weigh up first.

So, if you’re looking back at a hire that didn’t work out, there’s a good chance it wasn’t really the CV at all, it was simply that fit never got tested. Building even a couple of these questions into your process from now on will mean you’re weighing up fit alongside skills from the start, rather than finding out the hard way a few months down the line.

If you want to talk through how to ensure your interview process is fit for purpose, please get in touch, we’re always happy to help!