Our first requirement is that you’re kind. Lessons from a different way to recruit

On a slow-moving train I wrote our first job ad. The Kaleidoscope journey had just begun, with our first piece of work (worth a salute to the late Public Health England) confirmed, and new team members required. But how should we recruit to an organisation which we very deliberately wanted to be different?

50 staff later, we’re still using the language typed on that train: “Our first requirement is that you’re kind. Life is too short to work with people who aren’t.”

Putting kindness at the pinnacle of what we look for in new Kscopers has been an ever-present of how we work inside, as well as one of the first things people outside find out about us. And we really mean it: it doesn’t matter about your experience (say you run a large car-maker, or aspire to get to Mars), if you’re a bit of a dick, we don’t want to know.

So what have we learnt from six years of recruiting in a different way?

1. The kindness ‘test’

We often hear people tell us “I love how you recruit’, (which is very nice), “….but how do you test whether people are kind or not?” Short answer: we don’t. We start from an assumption that the vast majority of people are already kind and we’re very happy to take their word for it.

However, if there is a test, it’s one for applicants as to whether an organisation which spotlights kindness is one for them. If you’re ambivalent about kindness at work, you won’t apply. If you think kindness is ridiculously under-talked about, you’re far more likely to be drawn to us. We actively want people to celebrate and talk about their own kindness in the proud way they absolutely should.

2. Kindness versus niceness

Without wanting to give away our trade secrets, we do always ask a kindness question at interview: “do you think there are times when we need to put aside kindness in favour of something else?” The responses follow a similar pattern: A pause. A furrowed brow. And then an almost universal “no”. What then usually follows is a thought experiment – is there anything, anything, you would have to be unkind about? Giving hard feedback? Firing someone even?  There’s always a way to do it with kindness (cue quotes from the Dalai Lama and Brené Brown).

The train of thought here is commonly one of teasing apart niceness and kindness. Niceness seeks a result that is pleasant. Kindness seeks one that shows care and compassion for an individual. I know which I prefer.

3. The impact on performance

I suppose many would term our approach as ‘values-based recruitment’ or some other similarly trendy tag. Yes, we do it because the value we ascribe to kindness is greater than anything else. But the risk in putting it into this box is that it comes with a whiff of choosing to accept a lower level of competence, or performance, in exchange for your values. Nothing could be further than the truth.

I’ve had the good fortune of working in some outstanding teams across my career. None of them compare to the calibre of people I work with today at Kaleidoscope. This is seen in the good times by a level of skill which constantly leaves me flabbergasted. It’s shown in the bad times by their flexibility, ability to adapt to new contexts, and how they cope with ridiculous amounts of ambiguity.

But why should we be surprised? Create a context where people feel supported to bring the best of themselves, and hey presto, people produce their best work. Funny that.

Niceness seeks a result that is pleasant. Kindness seeks one that shows care and compassion for an individual.

You won’t be shocked that we’re not changing how we recruit any time soon. But I am a bit shocked that more people aren’t following suit. The amount of positive feedback we get is only matched by how many people say “I’d love to do that, but I can’t.” Well why not? Last time I checked, NHS Jobs didn’t have a ‘no kindness’ rule, nor any Trust having decreed recruitment must always be led by technical competencies before all else. 

There’s a ‘money where your mouth is’ element to this. For us, recruiting new members to our team are the most important decisions we make. We will continue making these decisions led by the thing which matters most to us: kindness.