Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love

by Richard Sheridan

Your culture should be so abundantly obvious in your interview process, it would be impossible for any potential employee to miss. The power of implementing this during your hiring process is that candidates who are poor fits for your intentional culture won’t want to work for you. They will easily reject your culture if they sense a clear mismatch with their own personality and desires. The goal of your interviewing process should be to identify bright, capable people who are a good fit for your culture and want it to thrive.

Your interview needs to match your culture. You shouldn’t interact with your potential hires differently than you do with your team. Cultures and teams are like families and tribes. Each one has different customs and habits.

A résumé—full of vague titles, employment periods, compliance ratings, university degrees, and the illuminating “skills section”—is pretty useless for the all-important culture fit imperative,

First Round: Simulate the Work

The purpose, James tells them, is to make your partner look good. If your partner struggles, help him or her out. If you know something the other person doesn’t know, share it. The goal is to get your partner a second interview. In these first few minutes the candidates are confronted full force by our cultural values. You can likely imagine the twisting of brains at this point, as candidates want to make sure they get the second interview.

All the while, the observers watch how each person contributes to the problem solving, how they share, how they argue, how they collaborate, and whether they actually get something done. Throughout it, the observers are asking themselves, “Would I like to pair with this person for a week? Would I feel supported if I were struggling? Would I be able to support them and would they listen if I did? Would I learn something from this person? Would they help me grow?”

Let the Team Build the Team

Second Round: Do Real Work

We give the person a one-day paid contract to work on a real client project all day. (We bill the work to the client, who is informed of this ahead of time, at a lower rate.)

In the morning, the candidate may work with Ted, one of our programmers, and then perhaps pair with Vera, another programmer, in the afternoon. It will be the candidate’s job to bring Vera up to speed with what happened in the morning, although Rob is also available for questions.

We watch to see whether the candidate is curious, asking questions and learning on the fly, while translating his or her expertise into this unknown territory.

It’s not for everyone and we’re okay with that. We believe an interview should give both sides of the table a chance to evaluate fit for culture.

If the feedback from the team is positive, then we invite the person in for a three-week trial. During this paid three-week contract—now at our higher, entry-level rate—the candidate works on real client projects and pairs with at least three other Menlonians.

we are looking for able learners with curiosity.