When looking for people to fill your company's open positions, finding candidates with the right skills for each job is naturally the top priority. People are not robots; proper recruitment is more than matching skillsets to job requirements. Creating a team that's more than the sum of its parts and avoiding high employee turnover can be challenging for business owners and hiring managers. This is where company culture comes in.
Defining your organization's core values and finding individuals who naturally align with them is more challenging than it sounds. However, once achieved, it can significantly improve your company's overall performance and bottom line. Keep reading to understand what company culture is, learn how to define it for your organization, and consider some tips on finding candidates who are likely to fit.
What is company culture?
Many people have a general idea of what company culture is, but defining it can be tricky because it means different things to different organizations. Companies define their culture by various factors, such as management styles, professional standards, staff behaviors, and general beliefs on different issues. Some aspects of a company's culture are expressed in written form, while others are implicit and often visible in the staff's actions and behaviors. Simply put, a company's culture is like an individual's personality.
Why is company culture important?
Defining your company's core values and finding people who align with them can do wonders for all aspects of your business. Working with colleagues who share their worldviews and beliefs helps employees enjoy their work and have happier lives. Here are some reasons why hiring for culture fit can be essential for your organization:
- It makes employees more productive. While various studies and polls have different percentage figures to reflect how much having happy employees increases productivity, the consensus is that it has a significant positive effect. So, creating and implementing a company culture is a win-win situation, as your employees are happier and do a better job.
- It boosts employee retention rates. Working in a place that's a professional and personal fit can make employees more loyal. Finding new staff takes a lot of time and resources, and hiring people that match your company's culture can help you avoid that.
- You increase your chances of attracting highly skilled candidates. Word gets around, and creating a workplace with people who share similar values will likely help your company build a reputation as a great place to work. This can have tremendous long-term effects, as exceptional professionals who share those values will be more inclined to work for you.
- It can raise profits. Creating a positive company culture and implementing a hiring process that supports it can naturally improve organizational performance by fostering happy, engaged, loyal, and skilled employees.
"Some aspects of a company's culture are expressed in written form, while others are implicit and often visible in the staff's actions and behaviors. Simply put, a company's culture is like an individual's personality."
How to establish your organization's culture
Creating and implementing company culture is the first step toward creating a workplace with engaged and like-minded employees. However, this is easier said than done, and building the right organizational culture can take time and effort. Here are some steps to develop and uphold a strong company culture.
Start by defining your values and goals
An appropriate starting point is meeting with fellow managers and decision-makers to establish your organization's mission, vision, and values. In other words, determine what you want to achieve, how you want to achieve it, and which principles will guide you along the way. Try to get feedback from people at all levels of your organization to make your goals as realistic and achievable as possible.
Once you clearly define your organizational culture, you and other management team members must showcase it in everything you do. Employees are much more likely to adhere to rules and principles if they see the people in charge leading by example. You must be a walking, talking symbol of your company's culture.
Take every opportunity to share your company's culture
Everyone, from both inside and outside your organization, must know what your business stands for. Communicating your cultural values consistently and clearly can help everyone understand them and implement them in everyday actions. Make sure to include details regarding your company culture in all aspects of staff recruitment, from prospecting to onboarding. This will help you hire people who share your company's culture's core elements from the get-go.
Listen to and consider employee feedback every step of the way
Even after implementing your company's culture, it often helps to make slight adjustments based on employee feedback. This can help you keep up with what modern-day employees expect from your organization and avoid a situation where the management team's values and goals are unrealistic and difficult to implement.
Tips on hiring for culture fit
Creating a hiring culture that improves the chances of finding job prospects that fit your company's culture can be essential for the organization's long-term future. Consider these tips to improve your chances of making it happen.
Make sure all hiring materials express your company's culture
As mentioned earlier, your company culture should be visible in everything you do. This includes all the tools you use to recruit new personnel, including job ads, your website, and your company's social media presence. Although including some cultural elements in the job descriptions for open roles may put off some potential candidates, you wouldn't want them anyway, as they most likely won't be right from a cultural standpoint.
Ask the right questions during interviews
The job interview is an excellent opportunity to showcase your company culture and determine whether the candidate would be a good fit. Consider asking these questions to assess this:
- Salary aside, what motivates you to work?
- What was the best and worst part of working for your previous employer?
- From what you've seen so far, which of our company's goals and values appeal to you the most? How about the least?
- What determined you to apply for this role?
- How would you define a good manager?
- How would you define a successful company culture?
Show candidates your company culture in action
Finally, when you're close to hiring someone, you can demonstrate how your company culture impacts your employees' daily routine. You can give them a tour of your workplace and showcase how workers from different departments carry out their tasks and engage with each other.
Let them get a clear image of their everyday life if they worked for you. Then, right before the interview is over, you can take them back to the interview room and ask them what they thought about what they saw. If you get a detailed and enthusiastic response, you may have a cultural fit.
Defining and implementing your company's culture can be difficult. Still, the rewards that come with doing it right will make it worth your while. While having employees with the right skills for each role is still your number one priority, ensuring they fit from a cultural standpoint is also an essential part of the recruitment process.
Learn more about how to have happy and productive employees
Discover these six ways to boost employee morale without breaking the bank.
Learn who you should avoid hiring by looking for these four common signs of a bad hire.
Are you having trouble finding the right people for some roles? Consider these eight recruiting strategies for hard-to-fill positions.
