Cultural fit is a very important factor for firms to consider when hiring external candidates

What's a "cultural fit" anyway? And why is cultural fit important when finding a job candidate?

When interviewing a prospective employee, finding a good cultural fit means finding someone who believes in your company's mission and shares a similar outlook and attitude as his or her potential colleagues.   

Defining Your Workplace Culture

Before you can hire for culture, however, you must define it. What are your company's values? What are the behaviors, attitudes, and mindsets that make your teams tick?   

If you're struggling to identify your culture or are looking to revamp it, external consultants can offer the perspective you need. Sometimes an outsider sees things you miss and can help you develop the type of environment that attracts the individuals you're seeking. From there, you can train managers to ensure those values are being represented in employees' everyday experiences.   

Training managers to uphold your organization's culture is important because negative interactions among co-workers impact the entire workplace.  Millennials in particular look to leadership to set the cultural tone, so executives and managers must present a unified front when implementing cultural standards.   

People care about their work environment. They want to be part of dynamic, supportive organizations that stand for well-defined missions. Recent studies show that many professionals would consider taking lower salaries to work at companies known for their great cultures.

It's crucial to find someone who believes in your organization's mission and who shares a similar attitude as his or her potential teammates.

Hiring Candidates Who Enhance the Company Environment

Once you've cultivated a strong company culture, you should hire people who enhance it! 

For example, at Hueman, we gravitate toward candidates who are:

• Positive
• Self-motivated
• Adaptable

We've seen the benefits of hiring for cultural fits firsthand. Hueman has been recognized by Fortune magazine as a Best Workplace and the Great Place to Work Institute for 14 consecutive years, even earning the No. 1 spot in 2013 and the No. 2 spot in 2014.  Most recently, in 2018 we were recognized by Gallup as one of the Top 39 Great Workplaces.

As much as we pride ourselves on our hard work, we also recruit people who value work-life balance and are willing to have fun on the job. We wouldn't hire someone who looks good on paper but lacks the right mentality for our team.  We live by this approach and are passionate about helping our clients do the same.

The old approach of sticking just any "warm body" into open positions doesn't work. Why? If they are the wrong fit,  those warm bodies become disgruntled once they realize they don't belong with the organization, and they either quit or create problems on their teams. Their responsibilities fall to their colleagues, who then become burned out and disgruntled. It's not a good cycle.   

When you hire the right people, the organization thrives. People want to come to work every day because they love their co-workers and feel valued by the organization. When we partner with other organizations, we learn about their cultures first and then source potential candidates. The only people who make it to interviews are pre-vetted and guaranteed to complement existing teams.   

5 Ways Hiring for Cultural Fit Can Benefit Your Business

Once you define your company culture, here are five ways hiring for cultural fit can benefit your business:

1. Increased employee satisfaction.   

Happy employees are productive, engaged, and motivated to succeed. That's a critical combination in any industry, where employees are entrusted with your company's health. In an ideal world, who wouldn't want to enjoy going to work every day?

2. High-level performance.   

When workers feel like they belong, they're enthusiastic about taking on new challenges and responsibilities. The entire team benefits from their willingness to go the extra mile. The result? High-level performance from your employees.

3. Decreased turnover.      

Employee turnover is costly. People stay in jobs they like. Employees who are happy are 12 percent more productive in their work environments and feel invested in the long-term success of the company. They want to stick around to play their parts.

4. Lower stress levels.   

Stress levels in the workforce are largely due to the lack of a job fit -- which can be preventable with a value alignment between the employees and the work environment (aka having a cultural fit in your workplace). Stress is a relationship-killer among co-workers, and it distracts people from doing their jobs well. Cohesive teams are productive, so be mindful of how new hires will impact (and be impacted by) existing dynamics.   

5. Employee loyalty.   

Employees should not dread coming to work every day. If workers see themselves as valued team members, they identify with the company's success and contribute to the overall purpose and goals of the organization. They're less likely to leave if they feel responsible to their colleagues and their employer.   

Great hires bring fresh energy to their teams, inspiring creativity and a renewed sense of motivation. That spike in overall engagement can increase both productivity and profitability by 20 percent.   

The Wrong Cultural Fit in the Workplace is Bad for Business   

Hiring someone who doesn't align with your culture doesn't only affect other staff members and management — it also negatively impacts customer care. A single bad employee can drag down the morale of an entire office, increasing the likelihood of mistakes and underperformance.   

If you can combine finding the right people who share the cultural beliefs with effective and ongoing training and professional development you will see winning results.

Hiring for cultural fit is essential to keeping your company's reputation in good standing. Bad cultural fits tend to be disengaged from work. Weeding out people who don't fit your culture during the recruitment process can save you money in the long run.  

In the end, you can't teach someone to fit into your organization's culture and goals. But, you can hire the very best candidate for the longevity of your business and the foundation of your core values as a company.

Finding the right cultural fit for your business can positively impact your business—and it's clear that it's in more ways than one.  

Check out our eBook on Finding the Right Cultural Fit for Your Company and learn how to recruit the best for your business.

Though the term cultural fit has gaining popularity in recruitment, many employers are still perplexed by its meaning.

So what exactly does a cultural fit mean?

Cultural fit is a congruence between the values and behavioral norms of a company and a candidate. It means that candidate’s core values, actions, and goals match yours.

A certain candidate might have an impressive skillset and valuable experience. However, this candidate won’t be able to perform his best if he doesn’t fit in with your team, department and company culture. This is why it is crucial to assess cultural fit in the selection process.

What is more important in the selection process: A job fit or a cultural fit?

Long story short — they are both equally important.

However, you should keep in mind that most people can learn specific job-related duties and learn any necessary new skills with relative ease, especially when you invest some time and effort in training them.

On the other hand, learning how to work well with team members and fitting into the company as a whole is much more complicated and a process that even the best training can’t guarantee.

If you have two candidates — one who has the perfect skills and experience and another who has slightly fewer skills and experience, but is a better cultural fit — it’s better to go with the second candidate.

To hire the best candidate, you need to choose the best person not only for the position but also for your company.

Importance of cultural fit

According to a psychological study by Kristof-Brown, employees who fit well with their company, colleagues and management team:

• Enjoy greater job satisfaction
• Identify more with their company
• Are more likely to remain with the business
• Are more committed
• Display superior job performance

A recent analysis of 200 workplace studies, reported by Randstad, found that cultural fit was more important in predicting an employee’s commitment to their employer than any other factor, including skill, talent or experience.

These findings highlight the importance of cultural fit for employee performance and retention.

Employees who embrace your company culture and values perform better and are more likely to stay longer in your company. They also work better with others, boost team morale and positively affect your future recruiting efforts by becoming your company’s brand ambassadors.

On the other hand, employees who are a bad cultural fit can cause disruptions in your company and culture, negatively affect your projects, and hurt client or customer relations.

They are also more likely to leave your company. According to recruitment consultancy Robert Walters survey, “74% of professionals said that they felt demotivated when working for an organization where they were a poor cultural fit” and 69% reported they “wanted to leave the organization ASAP.” According to the same survey, 73% of professionals have left a job because of poor cultural fit! This creates a turnover that leaves companies in a situation where they have to start the recruiting process all over again, wasting time and money.

Difficulties assessing cultural fit

Though it might seem quite simple, assessing cultural fit is difficult.

For example, it seems obvious that an introverted candidate who enjoys the seclusion of separate cubicles wouldn’t fit into a company that has an open space office and frequently holds loud office parties. It also doesn’t make sense to expect an enthusiastic extrovert to work remotely because this candidate will probably suffer in isolation.

But real-life case scenarios are often much more complicated!

For example, you might have two extroverted candidates who are both very sociable. However, they express their sociability in two completely different ways: One candidate may prefer to chat with colleagues every day as they work, while the other might like to super focus on work tasks alone and then go out with colleagues after work. These two candidates are both sociable; however, their behaviours will have a totally different impact on their colleagues and affect their team in completely different ways.

Obviously, assessing cultural fit has many nuances and requires a thoughtful approach. Consequently, most employers avoid assessing cultural fit in the selection process.
According to a research report published by Development Dimensions International (DDI), an international talent management company, “78% of respondents believe that organizations and hiring managers do not assess for culture fit because they do not know how.”

How to assess cultural fit in the selection process

There are many ways to hire for cultural fit. The easiest way to assess for cultural fit in your selection process is to simply add cultural fit interview questions to your list of standard interview questions.

However, if you really want to check how candidates will fit in your team and your company culture, you should observe them in different situations. Take them on a tour of your office. Let them sit in on a meeting or have them join you for a team lunch. Include them in informal meetings with team members and colleagues or invite them to a pre-employment dinner. Some companies also assess candidates’ cultural fit during a trial work period.

Employers should also consider other methods and tools that can help identify cultural fit. According to recruitment consultancy Robert Walters, only 18% of employers use psychometric tests or other external examinations to assess candidates’ cultural fit. Finally, you should also consider applying equitable and culturally responsive assessment tests to avoid your own biases (conscious or subconscious) and embrace diversity as you select candidates who will be a good fit for your company culture.

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