Stephanie Kramer has spent the majority of her 20-year beauty career working for L’Oreal, first in marketing and now as the chief HR officer of the company’s North America operations.
Given the work she does to build and develop her team, she knows how to spot a good hire.
Kramer says she looks for candidates who are aware of the brand’s values, including passion, innovation, entrepreneurial spirit, open-mindedness, quest for excellence and responsibility. She says she doesn’t just want people to rattle these phrases off, but rather hear how they personally connect with them.
“I’m looking for a natural affinity,” she tells CNBC Make It. “I’m not looking for someone to try to fit to the values because that’s what they think I want to hear. I want them to feel it.”
Stephanie Kramer is the chief HR officer of L’Oreal North America
Stephanie Kramer
For innovation, for example, she wants to know: “Where are they getting ideas? How are they sharing them with others? How are they helping to snowball when someone has a good idea, how have they made it better together?”
Kramer says candidates don’t just have to talk about showing these values in their past work experiences. “I want to hear about it in other parts of their life,” she says.
“I love when someone’s like, ‘I had this idea. I got my friends together, we made it happen, and this is the result, and I went back, and it’s even bigger,'” Kramer says. “Their pride that comes across when they say that is so amazing.”
How to talk about past failures
Kramer says she often asks candidates to tell her about a time they failed and what they learned from the experience.
The executive says she’s most interested in hearing how people discuss their role in a setback.
“There’s a really powerful accountability for your role in the failure, but also a self-awareness of how you could have helped other parts succeed,” she says.
She also likes to hear people discuss more of what they needed in that challenging moment, as it shows how they work in a team and under pressure. For example, a lesson from failure could be as simple as owning up to the fact that you should have asked for more help.
“The combination between self-awareness, accountability, and being OK with with failure — learning over knowing — that I really like to hear,” she says.
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