Business Growth: Recruiting for Cultural Fit

How do you decide who will be the best fit for your business? Do you place more weight on experience, qualifications, or cultural fit?

As a rapidly growing business, you will need to invest time and money into finding the right person to fulfill newly created job roles. When your inbox fills up with job applications and CVs, it can be overwhelming trying to find “The One.”

Bringing the right people into your business is the biggest challenge any organisation faces, according to Guv Jassal, Director of Washington Frank, an international technology recruiting company.

Making the right decision is even more crucial when you are a small business owner or a startup. Individual employees can have a huge impact on your business.

Why Focus on Cultural Fit?

Some businesses will only consider candidates who exactly match their criteria and allow them to tick every box. Others will look past the facts and focus on the individual.

When comparing experience, qualifications, and cultural fit, Jassal argues that the latter should be the biggest factor in your recruitment decisions. The reason why is that no two people are the same.

Personality and Values

We all differ in personality, attitudes, and values. These individual differences don’t only apply to recreation, but come into play at work too.

An understanding of individual personalities is crucial to maximising employee happiness and productivity at work. Click To TweetYou will also see the results in your company’s bottom line. A candidate with a strong cultural fit is more likely to work well with other successful employees. He or she will continue to build skills within your company and will stay on long-term.

Technical Skills

In terms of technical skills, the industry you are recruiting for will play a crucial role in what weight you can give to cultural fit.

For example, some roles in the medical or science fields will obviously need specific qualifications and experience. Thinking about the role you are recruiting for, can you teach a lot of the technical elements on the job?

If so, it is definitely worth looking deeper into the candidate’s cultural fit and passion for a role. People can’t fake pride and enthusiasm for their work.

This Forbes article suggests that poor cultural fit is to blame for as much as 89% of hiring failures. If you bring people into your team who don’t fit within your culture, chances are they won’t match well with your work environment.

They will be more likely to leave your company for another opportunity that matches their own values. It is expensive, in terms of both time and money, to recruit new staff, so a high staff turnover rate is definitely something you want to avoid.

Don’t Build a Team in Your Image

Companies can stagnate if they recruit a team, or even an entire workforce, full of people who look and behave like their managers.

You need to be aware of workplace diversity. Think about what new skills and approaches candidates can bring into the organisation. How can they keep it moving forward in the right direction?

Don’t make hiring decisions based on who you would choose as friends. Don’t consider whether they enjoy your favorite candy or sports team. Rather, choose someone who shares the company’s vision, values, and passions.

How Should You Assess Cultural Fit?

During the recruitment process, you need to look closely at whether a candidate is going to be a good cultural fit, as well as whether they have the right skills to do the job. Do they have transferable skills? Will they be able to grow and learn with the company?

An interview is a perfect opportunity to get to know the person behind the qualifications. It is true that a candidate’s CV can shed some light on his or her cultural fit.

But the interview is your chance to ask questions that give you a deeper understanding of candidates. They allow you to determine whether applicants would be a good match for the role and the organisation.

You could ask about:

• Environments they thrive in
• Their ideal work day
• What teamwork means to them
• Hobbies that aren’t on their resumés
• Their passions

The main quality to look for in the recruitment process is whether someone is truly passionate about the role and the company.

Jassal believes this characteristic is the greatest indicator of future success. It ultimately benefits everyone involved:

Recruiting candidates really is a two way process that should benefit both the candidate and the company hiring.

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