Cultural fit is a concept that can be hard to define but everyone knows when it is missing.
Simply put, cultural fit is the likelihood that a person will be able to effortlessly live your business core values and behaviours.
If you assess cultural fit throughout your recruitment process, you will ensure you hire people who will become fantastic in their new roles. This will certainly help drive long-term growth and success for your business.
What this means is that when you hire on both job fit and cultural fit, you’ll find that your new team members are:
- faster at really becoming part of your team
- able to start contributing quicker than others
- happier in their new role
- more likely to stay longer with your business
- all set to become brand ambassadors
- likely to become ‘star performers’
When you make recruiting decisions purely on skills and don’t take into account the cultural fit of the candidate, you may find:
- The candidate doesn’t fit in with your existing team
- They will quickly become dissatisfied with their role
- They will not adhere to the values and behaviours expected of them
- They may end up leaving through resignation or termination
Top Tip: Give applicants a chance to lead the conversation.
We’ve all been to interviews where the interviewer sticks to an approved list of 10 questions. Instead, hand the interviewee the keys. See how they communicate without prompts or guides. This can provide an opportunity for vibrant personalities to shine. If the interviewee has difficulty conversing with you of their own accord, that can be a sign that their personality doesn’t fit the role.
Do you know what your core values are?
It’s important, as the leader, to know yourself and your business well enough to know what your true or core values are. If you discover that you actually value timeliness over creativity, that’s your prerogative. When you started your business, how did you want it to run? What did you want to motivate people? Don’t worry about being “wrong” when you answer these questions. The important thing is to answer them.
Perhaps respect, open communication and on-time service delivery are your core values. For another business, it may be delivering your products at the lowest cost. Whatever your core values are – live them and be sure to communicate and promote them at every opportunity.
Culture is one of the areas we look at when we’re asked to assess a business strategically, in its entirety – not just from an accounting perspective. We take a wide-angled lens and review the whole package, including its culture, beliefs and aspirations. Then we help the owner to redirect energies into making it a more successful, lucrative and fulfilling business,
It’s also a strong feature in our own recruitment process. If you think you have the right attributes to join our fast-growing and award-winning team – and you see a vacancy on this website that suits your skills, drop an email to our practice manager: Sharon@nordens.co.uk.
