Work ethic is about a set of ideas, beliefs, and patterns of behaviors. Before you can look for work ethic synergies and possible conflicts from a job applicant you must first define your organization’s corporate culture.

1. Harry B. Hecht 39 Wrentham Drive Medford, NJ 08055  609-636-9893  HarryHecht@gmail.com 
www.linkedin/in/harryhecht
The Leader. The Expert. The Source.
Improve Your Hiring Process - Define Your Company’s Work Ethic
Work ethic is about a set of ideas, beliefs, and patterns of behaviors. Before you can look for work ethic
synergies and possible conflicts from a job applicant you must first define your organization’s corporate culture.
You know the drill. You are in the recruiting mode and looking to hire a new employee. Is this a
fire drill for you or a planned and proactive activity? Do you have standardized procedure for
recruiting? You probably receive a resume; check the applicant’s qualifications, job history, and
salary requirements. Then, if the applicant seems qualified, you schedule a face-to-face interview,
right? The actual interview process can vary greatly from company to company. The types of
questions that are asked during the face-to-face interview are dependent on the experience of the
person doing the interviewing. The type of testing that is done is different for each industry, and
can vary from company to company within an industry. So, why should you continue to read this
article? Read it because there is an idea that you can adopt that will improve your overall hiring
results. The ability to rate a person’s work ethic.
Define Your Corporate Culture
Work ethic represents how a person behaves on the job. Work ethic is culture driven and is linked
to upbringing, education, and life experience. Work ethic is about a set of ideas, beliefs, and
patterns of behaviors. Before you can look for work ethic commonalities and possible conflicts
from a job applicant, or existing employee, you must first define your organization’s corporate
culture. To begin, see how you would answer these questions for your organization.
1. When employees talk to customers or clients how should they present themselves?
2. How does your organization communicate its business strategy,mission, vision, and values to employee and
customers?
3. How does your organization communicate behavioral expectations such as rules, standards,and operating
procedures?
4. What is your expectation for how employees spend their time when they are on the job?
5. How would you define your organization’s management style?
If you cannot answer one or more of these questions, you may have discovered a GAP in your
ability to clearly define your corporate culture. If you do not like how you answered a question,
you may have found a weakness in the definition of your corporate culture.
Define Your Corporate Work Ethic
The next step in the process is to define how your corporate culture defines your corporate work
ethic. What are the behavioral values you look for from an employee? To illustrate this idea,
assume that I answered the above questions and have clearly defined my corporate culture. Now, I
can ask questions of a potential employee to assess how their personal work ethic aligns to my
corporate work ethic.

2. Harry B. Hecht 39 Wrentham Drive  Medford, NJ 08055  609-636-9893  HarryHecht@gmail.com 
www.linkedin/in/harryhecht
I recommend that you create your own set of questions in writing, and that you use a five point
Likert scale, ranging from strongly disagree with response to strongly agree with response, to rate
how the individual answered each question.
Sample Questions
 Based on yourpast work experience how would you describe presenting yourself in a professional manner at
all times.
 Have you ever worked for a company that used semi- annual performance reviews; if you have how you did
use your education and work experience to achieve higher performance ratings?
 What would you do to maintain top-of-mind awareness concerning our mission statement?
 We use written position descriptions and a set of standard operating procedures,how would you handle any
conflicts that arise in the course of doing your job?
 You are required to work 40+ hours a week, are required to request time off at least 40 hours in advance, and
cannot work any overtime hours unless they are preapproved by your manager. What do you see as the
advantages and disadvantagesofthese policies?
 Our company uses a consultative management style. In other words, decisions take into account the best
interests of the employees and the company, communication is generally downward, and employee feedback
is encouraged to maintain morale. Tell me about the management style of some of your previous employers
and how you functioned in those environments?
 There are three things that symbolize our success; high ratings on customer satisfaction surveys,our corporate
logo, and our profit at the end of the year. How would you support those symbols?
Improve the Odds - Hire the Right Person
We all come from different cultural backgrounds. Growing up in New Jersey, Texas, Los Angeles,
or Minnesota has an impact on work ethic. Working for an entrepreneurial managed company or a
professionally managed company or a large bureaucratic public company can also have an impact
on work ethic. Unfortunately, we sometimes hire people with the right qualifications who have a
conflicted work ethic. Eliminate that scenario from your experience and improve your ability to
hire the right person. Assess the job applicant’s work ethic before you make a final hiring
decision.
You will be glad that you did.
Harry Hecht, Business Coach and Consultant has more than 30 years of Business Technology industry
experience and was the former Regional Manager for US Banks` Office Equipment Finance Division. His
extensive business experience includes a 22 year distinguished career as the Vice President US Dealer
Sales for Konica Minolta Business Solutions and 5 years as VP/ General Manager for Global Imaging
Systems, a Xerox Company. Harry Hecht is a member of the MPSA has been actively involved for over 10
years in the development, creation, implementation and growth of Managed Print Services programs
throughout the independent dealer channel. harryhecht@gmail.com and www.linkedin/in/harryhecht