What is values-based recruitment?

Values-based recruitment is a strategy that steers away from traditional recruitment metrics like qualifications, training, hard skills and experience in favour of less tangible ones, such as personal values, vocational aptitude, a passion for the field and soft skills like communication, leadership and empathy. In practice, this involves assessing potential candidates by who they are, rather than what they’ve done. The strategic use of VBR can benefit companies in any sector, but it may be especially well-suited to organisations where alignment with the company’s mission and values is particularly important.

Which industries benefit most from VBR?

While it is generally an advantage for any company to recruit workers who are well-aligned with their values and goals, VBR can be more effective for industries centred around public service or society’s wellbeing. Here are five fields where this recruitment style may be particularly beneficial.

1. Healthcare

Working in the healthcare sector—especially in patient-facing roles—demands significant emotional energy. As a vocational profession, healthcare greatly benefits from values-based recruitment. Screening candidates for their passion for the field and assessing soft skills like empathy, compassion, resilience and strong ethics helps ensure that the workforce is not only skilled but also deeply aligned with the sector’s mission of care and support.

2. Education

Educators are typically in a position of significant influence, helping shape the intellectual and social development of younger generations. These students become the future workforce. Leadership skills can be particularly important in this profession, but teachers generally share a passion for their vocation and a robust ethical foundation. Values-based recruitment can help educational facilities like nurseries, schools and universities to recruit workers who can contribute to creating an environment that fosters curiosity, a love of learning and inclusivity.

3. Government

Working in the government ideally requires a strong commitment to public service and adherence to ethical standards. High-profile roles in government can attract people seeking influence, but this alone doesn’t translate into effective public service. 

Values-based recruitment is especially important in fostering a positive culture of public service, particularly at entry-level positions, to build a foundation of integrity and dedication from the ground up. By screening candidates for qualities such as integrity, a commitment to community service, empathy, leadership and the ability to inspire and motivate others, government employers can ensure their workforce is aligned with the principles of serving society.

4. Environmental

A passion for sustainability and fighting climate change is common in the environmental sector, and establishing a workforce who shares this value can act as an emotional bulwark against an often demoralising global climate crisis. Companies in this field can embrace values-based recruitment to target candidates with a history of community engagement or qualities like assertiveness, tenacity and the ability to inspire others.

5. Social care

In the UK, social care is a broad field that is typically concerned with the care of vulnerable people, from seniors, disabled people and displaced persons to children in the foster system and people struggling with challenges like mental health conditions, addiction or homelessness.

An employee’s personal qualities can significantly affect outcomes when handling delicate situations. Values-based recruitment in social care can screen for crucial qualities like compassion, empathy and integrity.

Benefits of values-based recruitment

VBR can offer significant benefits and complement traditional recruitment processes. Let’s explore a few of its advantages:

• May increase employee engagement and retention: VBR typically puts you in touch with candidates who view your field as a vocation. Their natural passion and enthusiasm often directly impacts their work and creates a positive atmosphere for others. Employees who feel aligned with their employer’s values typically stay in their roles for longer, especially if there are opportunities for career progression.
• Enhances your company’s reputation in the recruitment landscape: When your company becomes known for value-based recruiting, it builds a reputation for being people-focused and ethical. This can help boost your employer brand and attract a wider range of applicants.

Challenges and pitfalls

Like any recruitment method, values-based recruitment (VBR) comes with its own set of challenges and potential pitfalls. Here are some key considerations:

• Lack of standardisation in assessing candidates: Assessing values and soft skills can be more subjective than evaluating qualifications or technical skills, making it difficult to standardise the recruitment process across your HR team.
• Skill gaps may arise: Ensure that you have the means and resources to provide new employees with additional training to develop skills they may be lacking. Implementing mentorship programmes can help bridge these gaps effectively.
• Can be time intensive: VBR often requires additional steps, like more in-depth interviews to assess cultural fit, personality assessments and a thorough referencing process.
• Potential for a mismatched workforce: Transitioning from traditional recruiting to prioritising VBR could create a workforce where some employees are highly qualified but perhaps not an exact value fit, while newer ones are more aligned with company values but less experienced. This could lead to communication challenges if not managed effectively.

How to get started with values-based recruitment

If you are ready to embrace a more values-based recruitment strategy, here are a few ways to get started: 

1. Define your company’s goals and mission statement

To recruit based on your company’s values, it’s important to define what your values are, and to communicate this to your HR team. You may consider writing a mission statement.

2. Assess gaps in your workforce

A skills gap analysis is common in recruitment and can be particularly important when using VBR. For example, imagine your company manages a call centre for people with private health insurance, and recent reviews indicate a perceived lack of care for their concerns. In response, you might focus your VBR strategy on seeking candidates with strong empathy and compassion skills to address this.

3. Define non-negotiables

When implementing VBR, it’s important to determine which traditional metrics are prerequisites for your sector before you assess a candidate’s values and soft skills. For example, certain industries may require candidates to have specific qualifications, such as a medical degree, teacher training or a police clearance. Additionally, technical skills that your organisation cannot realistically provide training for should also be included in your list of non-negotiables.

4. Determine what you’re looking for

Recruiting based on values means determining which values and soft skills are most important to your organisation. Consider listing them in order of importance to help you determine how to rank candidates without the help of traditional recruitment metrics.

5. Draft interview questions to determine cultural fit

A VBR interview can be quite different to a traditional interview. Having a pre-prepared selection of behavioural and situational questions designed to assess a candidate’s cultural fit can lay the foundation for a successful interviewing process.

6. Follow up with referencing

Asking for and following up on references from previous employers or colleagues is a step that many companies skip in contemporary recruitment. However, it can be very helpful in value-based recruitment where references can offer testimony on a candidate’s character and personal ethics and and offer a clearer sense of what they’re like to work with.

Values-based recruitment can transform your recruitment process, helping you identify candidates who resonate with your company’s higher purpose and goals. While it may require additional effort, the long-term benefits – such as fostering a cohesive, motivated workforce that feels connected to a greater mission – can make it a highly valuable investment.