Finding the right person to fill a vacancy is often tougher than it sounds. There will always be candidates who look like the perfect fit on paper but fail to wow once they’ve settled into a role. One reason for this mismatch is less to do with talent or skills and more with how well they fit your company culture.
What is a culture fit?
A culture fit describes the ideal matching of individual personality and a business or organisation’s overall values and atmosphere.
A company’s culture is made up of a few different factors, including its core ethos, the beliefs and attitudes of its leaders, and the collective community of its employees. These factors create an overall ecosystem. When you welcome a new employee into the fold, the ideal scenario is for them to fit into the existing culture and bring the potential to enhance it.
It’s also essential to remember that a culture fit doesn’t mean just hiring dozens of people who may as well be carbon copies of each other. Strong workplaces are diverse and inclusive and represent many experiences and points of view. Company culture is a vibrant thing, not a set of rules and restrictions.
Why is finding a culture fit so important?
Finding a culture fit makes everything easier and everyone happier. Here’s how:
1. It improves staff retention
Employees who feel like they’ve found a company that vibes with them are much more likely to stick around.
Spending a little extra time at the recruitment and interview stage to determine whether someone is a good match for your company’s culture means your eventual hire will be with you for longer. Forbes reports that a good fit makes employees more likely to stay in their roles.
2. It creates a sense of community
When your team, individual and company values are in alignment, it has a huge impact on day-to-day satisfaction.
Employees working together to achieve the same results will likely find it much easier to resolve personal differences and feel committed to helping each other – which is perfect for driving feelings of community, connection and satisfaction.
According to Glassdoor, the culture and values of a company are the strongest predictors of employee satisfaction.
3. It boosts employee engagement
Companies with engaged employees consistently outperform those with disengaged staff. In fact, Gallup found that highly engaged business units enjoyed an 81% difference in absenteeism and a 14% difference in productivity. And when an employee feels like they are working towards common goals, engagement levels soar.
How do you work out your company’s culture fit?
To know that someone is a good cultural fit for your company, you must first understand your company’s culture.
If you’re unsure exactly what that is, it’s time to go back to basics and look at your mission statement, values, and goals. You should also be paying attention to the ambitions and principles of your current employees, team values play a big role in creating your culture.
Interview questions for finding the right culture fit
Save everyone a great deal of time and energy by ensuring that your interview process includes the kind of questions that will help you determine whether you’re looking at a good fit.
What motivates and inspires you?
This will give you some great insight into what drives a candidate, and while it may sound basic, it can also be a useful starting point for any conversation. It can reveal whether they’re a good fit for your company’s overall objectives and show what works for them on a personal level.
What sort of management style suits you best?
This will let you know whether a candidate fits your leadership style. For example, someone motivated by praise will flourish with coaching leaders. At the same time, some high performers may be much better suited to companies that operate on a democratic or laissez-faire style.
How do you go about solving issues at work?
This question isn’t all that easy to answer, but it will give you some more useful information about the kind of structures a potential employee likes to operate in. For example, someone who likes to use initiative and move quickly and independently will be a good fit for fast-paced environments, while those who prefer to take something back to their team will be great for community-based workplaces.
What do you bring to a team?
Here, you have a great way to determine how someone sees themselves fitting into your existing ecosystem. This question can also be about finding balance rather than identifying people who are exactly like the rest of your team. You may already have a glut of go-getters and need someone to help keep projects grounded and on schedule.
What sort of environment do you thrive in?
This question offers some easy insight into whether someone will fit well into the role you have for them. We all like to work at different paces and in slightly different ways; sometimes, even an excellent candidate isn’t suited to your company’s operations. For example, if you run a hybrid office and your candidate hates remote working, you may have a clash to consider.
Extra steps for finding the right culture fit
Interviews are a wonderful way to get an idea of whether a potential hire will fit right in, but you can take it a step further by giving them a chance to do some self-assessment.
Give them a tour of the office, take them out for coffee or have them sit in on a team meeting so they can help you determine whether you’re going to work well together or not – it could be the extra step you need to know you’ve got the right person for the role.
Transform your culture with Mo
- Improve employee engagement scores
- Reduce employee churn
- Build a collaborative culture
Mo is an employee recognition and engagement platform that can help leaders improve collaboration and morale, reduce employee churn and drive change.
Our platform creates a vibrant culture by developing team habits, encouraging people to celebrate success, recognise results and appreciate colleagues.
Your complete toolkit for connecting and motivating teams in the new world of work. Book a demo with our team today!
