The environment in a workplace is integral to developing a successful business. This environment is made up of the values, beliefs, attitudes and expectations a business has that forms the culture. The culture is essentially the glue that holds a business together and allows for a healthy and thriving work environment.
Defining your culture:
Most companies develop a work culture naturally without ever thinking about what they want it to be. This can sometimes work, but usually defining your company’s culture can help you to create:
- A culture policy based on what other employers do
- a workforce that fits your culture
- management styles that work cohesively with employees, their engagement and retention
- a clear and defined mission, vision and positioning statements and company values
- and a thriving and healthy work environment
Workplace Culture: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Define It (yourerc.com)
Culture can be a work in progress and can change as your business grows and evolves. Keeping culture in mind while recruiting can help growth and evolution to be beneficial and important for the business. This can benefit the workplace by increasing employee retention (which reduces employee recruiting expenses and training costs), increases employee productivity and promotes a better quality of work, a more positive work environment, engages and motivates employees, attract talent to the company, and enhances a positive brand image.
Recruiting for culture
It is crucial to keep cultural fit in mind through the recruitment process. This will be reflecting in potential employee’s ability to adapt to the core attitudes, behaviours and beliefs that are integral to your business. A study in 2005 showed that employees who had a good cultural fit with their company, colleagues and superiors had greater job satisfaction, greater employee performance and showed more loyalty to their company and therefore were more likely to remain with their company.
kristof-brown et al.pdf (radford.edu)
A positive work culture is significant as it can strengthen or weaken your company’s goals and objectives. It can also help you to attract the right candidate to your business. However, it’s important to note that hiring people who are a good cultural fit for you does not mean they have to be the same as everyone else.
According to the Harvard Business Review here are some questions to help you assess cultural fit in an interview:
- Tell me about a time when you worked with/for an organisation where you felt you were not a strong cultural fit.
- What best practices would you bring with you from another organisation? Do you think you would be able to implement these best practices in our environment?
- What makes you want to work for this organisation?
- What type of organisational culture do you think you thrive in?
- What is your ideal workplace?
- What values are you drawn to?
- How would you describe this organisation’s culture based on what you’ve seen? Is this a culture that would work for you?
Recruiting for Cultural Fit (hbr.org)
Assessing a candidate’s work style and ethic and giving them a bigger picture of what it’s like to work at your organisation will potentially reveal candidates who have behaviours and values that are consistent with your organisation. These candidates will naturally rise to the top, flourish in your work environment and drive long term growth and success for your company. Assessing culture fit is an important part of the recruitment process, and hiring the wrong people can have a negative impact on your business. Using an outsourcing company like Ally can help you to find the candidate with the right fit for your business. Your dedicated Ally can save you 2 days’ worth of selling time, making this process easier than ever for you.
