Our Approach: Principle Based Hiring
We apply our principles to find individuals who can apply our principles. We select individuals based first on virtue and then on talents. This means...
- We intentionally seek individuals who are aligned with Our Values and contribution motivated, and then who have aptitudes, experiences, knowledge, and skills that are additive to the team.
- We strive for mutual benefit where individuals can self-actualize and contribute to the company’s success.
In our experience, a business is only as good as its people, and people are only as effective as their implementation of principles.
Charles and Chase Koch
Becoming a Principle-Driven Leader, page 22
Why this matters to Koch:
- Principle Based Management provides us with a competitive advantage, so we need employees who will embrace and apply PBM to achieve superior results.
- A workforce with diverse experiences, perspectives, aptitudes, knowledge and skills and the motivation to continually learn, enables us to succeed in this rapidly changing world.
“As we’ve always said, we need to hire first on values and character and second on talents.”
Charles Koch
What We Look for When We Hire
Listen to Charles Koch discuss how we must hire contribution motivated people.
Principles We Apply When Hiring
We associate hiring with the Virtue and Talents Dimension. You’ll see the principles we apply help us consider virtue (character, values) and the talents (aptitudes, skills) we need to advance our vision.
In combination, Our Values and Contribution Motivation describe the individual values, attitudes, and behaviors that are consistent with PBM culture. If a candidate has talents that could add value to the team but would NOT contribute positively to our culture, PBM principles would guide us to NOT hire that person.
To make good hiring decisions when it comes to culture, we use a tool called Motivations and Behaviors for Individual and Organizational Success. It describes what it looks like if someone is contribution motivated, which includes many aspects of Our Values, and it is the basis for interview questions and candidate evaluations.
The most important factor when selecting and retaining employees is whether they have virtue — including being contribution motivated. But it is critical that they also have one or more talents that will help us succeed long term. “Additive to the Team” helps us expand our thinking when considering talents needed.
Someone is additive to the team when they have an aptitude or skill that will increase our ability to profitably expand our current business, solve existing or anticipated problems, and/or capture new opportunities.
Individuals can be additive to the team in different ways, such as bringing...
- Different perspectives and experiences
- Aptitudes that complement others on the team
- Skills that allow the team to do something new
- Capabilities we already have but need more of
We know different people create value in different ways. We embrace differences and respect people as individuals by not making assumptions, getting to know them during the hiring process, and striving to understand their motivations and ways they might be additive to the team.
We strive for employment relationships to be mutually beneficial — good for the employee and good for the team and company. While we are interviewing a candidate, we recognize that the candidate is also interviewing and evaluating us.
Sometimes this principle leads us to consider recommending a candidate for a different role because it’s more beneficial for them and the company.
Videos to Explore
Rethinking Job Requirements
Leaders discuss the importance of challenging the status quo and being open to rethinking job requirements.
Who Makes the Hiring Decision?
This video describes why hiring supervisors are responsible for making hiring decisions — and how others can help them.
Rethinking Job Requirements
Leaders discuss the importance of challenging the status quo and being open to rethinking job requirements.
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Contribution Motivated Selection
Leaders share an example of how applying contribution motivation in hiring helped make a great hiring decision.
Thinking Long Term When Dealing With Short-Term Needs
Hear leaders talk about the importance of handling staffing shortages with a long-term view.
Hiring Mistakes That Can Be Avoided With Thoughtfulness
Leaders express common hiring mistake and how to avoid them by slowing down and thoughtfully applying principles.
Optimizing the Team When Hiring
See an illustrative example of how what it means to optimize the team before deciding what is needed in hiring.
What We Look for When We Hire
Listen to Charles Koch discuss how we must hire contribution motivated people.
Additional Resources
Job Seekers
See the jobs available at Koch Companies.
Principle-Based Hiring Resources
Koch Employees — find hiring team responsibilities, interviewer training and other reference materials here.
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