"Cool" isn't a good word to use, but it is important to filter for people who can get along with others.
Some candidates can't make it through an interview without being condescending to someone, making snide remarks, being arrogant, trying to start arguments about trivial things, or other negative behaviors. If they're doing this during the interview, you're only seeing the tip of the iceberg. It's going to be 100X worse when you have to deal with that person 5 days a week.
Other candidates behave well during interviews but have a history of causing social problems at other companies. It takes some work to uncover these (and, importantly, validate their veracity). Some of the most toxic people I ever worked with were very charming in interviews. They swung from company to company, leaving a trail of unhappy coworkers behind them. They could only get hired into new companies where nobody knew any of their past coworkers, because a simple reference check would reveal how difficult they were to work with.
Filtering this behavior out before someone joins the team is very important. Hiring a single socially toxic or subversive person into a team is like dropping a bomb on a healthy team dynamic. You may lose multiple good employees before you figure out what's going on and put together a case for firing the bad apple.
I completely agree that toxic people destroy teams. I just have no idea how to detect that in an interview. It definitely makes sense to immediately filter out anyone who sets off "this person may be an asshole" vibes, but beyond that, what can you do? Some sort of "probationary let's see if we get along" period would probably be pretty effective, but that's unfair to new hires.
Also culture plays a big part. If asshole behaviour is unacceptable all the way to the top it tends not to happen. Being the only asshole sticks out and if there is a safe way people can complain that helps. Worked at a wide range of cultures on the asshole scale. Being at a zero asshole company is why I will probably life it here even if it hurts TC.
Asshole means different things to different people but if someone is power flexing, condescending, aggressive, uses process as a weapon, bullying etc. this is what I mean rather than say straight shooting and direct talk.
Yes, but that's because in the Netherlands, after that period, you cannot fire an employee without cause, and firing for cause requires a sub-district court proceeding.
In the US, if someone only reveals that they're a tremendous asshole to months into the role, you just fire them two months into the role.
" They could only get hired into new companies where nobody knew any of their past coworkers, because a simple reference check would reveal how difficult they were to work with." --> Any tips on how to effectively conduct reference checks? In my experience, candidates will only provide references from folks that they know will give glowing review, so you end up with generic positive feedback that ends up not being informative.
Would love to hear any strategies others have found successful.
You put bias next to stereotype like it's the same and taint it with bad connotations. I might have team where talkative person can be good fit. Other teams may consider such trait distracting.
You're choosing companion for 8h a day. Nothing wrong with checking culture fit (because that's basically what it is).
