Date: 23-Jul-2020
Bringing on the wrong new employee can have devastating effects on a team or department. Even if the new person has amazing skills, he might not fit in once he gets into the job.
Here’s how to hire for cultural fit.
Hiring managers can screen for culture fit only when the organization has formally defined what its culture is. Your mission and values will influence your culture; the valued behaviors people use to reach goals will define it.
“Senior leaders have the responsibility to formalize their company’s desired culture, model their desired culture, and align all plans, decisions and actions to that desired culture,” says Chris Edmonds, CEO of The Purposeful Culture Group and a workforce culture expert. “By specifying the elements of their desired culture, they define how ‘great citizens’ will behave.”
For hiring teams that are looking for ways to screen for culture, a great place to start is by building candidate personas, says Amber Hyatt, director of product marketing for cloud-based talent management solutions provider SilkRoad. These personas can give your organization a solid understanding of what the ideal candidate looks like before he even walks through the door, Hyatt says, and serve as a tool to help target positions to the right candidate. “This process not only identifies what skills are necessary to achieve success in the available position, but also what personality traits may translate to candidate job satisfaction,” she says.
Candidates should be interviewed by everyone they’ll be working closely with to ensure they fit with the team. That includes their soon-to-be boss, their peers in the workplace, future teammates and at least some if not all of their future direct reports, says John Meetz, president of The Alternative Board in South Central Kansas, a business coaching and advisory board service.
Communication can go both ways during interviews. These hiring teams should articulate a consistent message about the culture, mission and values of the organization, Hyatt says. “This ensures evenly balanced hiring standards, with each member of the team assessing each candidate for the exact characteristics they seek to verify a cultural fit.”
As the idea of cultural fit has become increasingly popular when hiring, technology has become a popular solution, says Greg Moran, CEO of OutMatch, a data-driven predictive talent selection tool. “Assessments can be used to hone in on the critical attributes required to succeed in a role, in terms of both job-related competencies and fit with a company’s culture,” Moran says. “Since these assessments are based on behavioral science, there is no right or wrong answer — just candid feedback that hiring managers can actually use to make their decisions on a more granular level.”
Behavioral assessment tools like DISC can also be a big help when hiring for fit and should be considered, Meetz says. It’s possible to change attitudes, but much more difficult to change behavior, he says, and it’s better to know what you might get from a candidate in advance.
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