Evaluating cultural fit: How recruiters ensure candidate-company alignment
Credible research-backed evidence has found a strong positive correlation between employee satisfaction, performance, retention and cultural fit. It seems organisations that emphasise cultural fit during hiring will benefit hugely. Equally, there is a strong likelihood of constant turnover if employees find they do not fit into the company ethos. At a time when attracting and retaining talent is challenging, assessing candidates for cultural fit can save a lot of money, time and effort.
What is cultural fit?
Every company has a unique culture shaped by the company’s core values, beliefs, ethics, attitudes, behaviours, etc. Every organisation expects that the people they hire align with these attributes. An employee who can seamlessly integrate into this culture will be able to perform better. This can only happen when the individual’s personal values, beliefs, ethics, etc., map to the company culture. When this cultural fit is missing, employees can feel frustrated and disinterested. Without a sense of belonging, they may fail to give their best.
Why is it important?
Cultural fit can impact employees’ and organisations’ performance and growth. Insights from Deloitte, published as a video titled Cultural Fit may be Secret to Winning Workforce, suggest embracing cultural fit to counter attrition challenges. The survey found cultural fit the foremost factor in creating a sense of belonging. Many studies have affirmed that people mostly leave their jobs because they find they are misfits. There is a cost associated with their leaving. Hence, there is an onus on recruiters to ensure cultural fit while hiring.
The most effective approach is to streamline the hiring process to assess cultural fit across all stages. Recruiters could start by screening relevant social media of candidates such as LinkedIn to know their professional behaviour traits, associations, etc.
Additionally, here are four tips to ensure candidate-company alignment while hiring.
1. Incorporate and give weightage to employee referrals
Happy employees are an organisation’s best ambassadors. And most employees who have been around for a while will have a good grasp of the company culture. When employees refer candidates, there is already an understanding between the employee and their referral about the company culture. So, the chances of such candidates fitting in are higher. Also, studies show that 45 per cent of referral hires stay longer than four years compared to 25 per cent of job board hires. Also, the cost-per-hire of employee referrals is $1,000 less on average, than other hiring sources. Hence, implementing a strong employee referral program gives multipronged benefits. Also, this approach enhances branding on company rating sites such as Glassdoor.
2. Create customised talent assessments
Recruiters must cooperate with all stakeholders and customise assessments to include comprehensive skill evaluations suiting the role. Some skill assessment options that ensure good cultural fit are psychometric tests, aptitude tests, on-the-job scenario-based tests, etc. These tests provide insights into candidates’ personality traits, approaches, mindsets, etc.. Additionally, recruiters can employ predictive analytics to understand future performance against set company parameters. This strategy can help eliminate mis-hires and save time, effort and cost.
3. Lay emphasis on interviews
To ensure a cultural fit, recruiters must check that interviewers do not work with a standard set of questions. Such an approach will not help in the effective assessment of cultural fit. Instead, the interviewers should interrogate candidates based on insights obtained from the customised assessments. They should also tweak the questions to suit the company’s cultural fit.
Sensitise interviewers to choose questions wisely. For example, open-ended questions can help elicit much information about the cultural fit. Also, if interviews are done via online platforms, various parameters like facial expressions, body language, hand gestures, eye contact, etc., can be analysed further. If organisations outsource interviews, they must ensure the service provider understands their company culture.
4. Internships and collaborative approach
Offering internships can help recruiters observe people in their workplace and give them a good idea about how candidates interact with colleagues, their work ethics, approach, etc. Collaborative interviews with cross-functional interviewers help recruiters reduce bias and make a more informed and balanced decision.
A company’s culture is based on many key parameters that the company identifies with. Therefore, recruiters need to ensure candidate-company alignment for every hire. It has to be an uncompromising criterion. Only then can everyone in a team collaboratively work towards organisational success.
References:
- mrinetwork.com
- www.linkedin.com
- www.linkedin.com
- hbr.org
- readwrite.com
- www.forbes.com
- www.zippia.com
- action.deloitte.com
