3 reasons to hire for cultural fit

Organisational culture depends upon the relationship between employees at the grassroots of a business and the leadership ethos of managers. If you fill your workplace with like-minded employees who are united behind the purpose and ambition of the business, you’ll invariably find a more collaborative and cohesive working environment.

What do we mean by ‘likeminded’

Too many HR leaders make the mistake of thinking that hiring like-minded people means hiring to a set personality description. For example, ‘the ideal candidate must be creative, outgoing and confident’ to match the personalities of existing employees. However, encouraging this sort of hiring mentality leads to a dearth of diversity. A truly rich organisational culture is one where people have different characteristics and different ways of thinking and working, meaning that debate and discussion lead to the evolution of better ideas.

To me, hiring ‘likeminded’ individuals to an organisation means focussing on attributes beyond personality. For example, recruiters should ask themselves ‘does this candidate feel as passionately about the organisation’s purpose as existing employees?’, ‘is this person interested in serving the community within which the organisation works?’. Taking stock of these motivations, and applying them to hiring policy, will result in the organisation growing by taking on more ‘like-minded’ people who want the business to succeed.

The importance of hiring people who are motivated by purpose is matched by ensuring that your culture is dynamic and diverse. Organisational diversity comes in many forms and the more variety present in a workplace, the more innovative and creative potential it has. Building a gender, ethnic and age- diverse workplace will result in an open culture that is consistently open to new processes and different ways of thinking. In this way, hiring for diversity and like-mindedness are complimentary pursuits; the more inclusive an organisation is, the better business performance will be.

Hiring for fit

The benefits of hiring a diverse set of people based on their motivation to succeed and their enthusiasm for the purpose, rather than recruiting purely from skill and experience are manifold:

1.      When people feel appreciated at work, they’re less likely to jump ship. This means that in hiring someone based on their drive to work for a purpose rather than on a job, you are immediately activating a loyalty trigger rooted in the fact that potential has been recognised.

2.      Employees who are naturally aligned to an organisation’s mission and vision will also feel more satisfied day-to-day. Research shows that satisfied employees are as much as 20% more productive than unhappy employees.

3.      Outlook is a core necessity when uniting a team behind a mission. Although employees should all have different skills, talents and thought processes, organisational culture requires a similarity in outlook; all employees working proactively toward achieving the purpose for which they were hired.

Developing a positive organisational culture is as much about the mission, vision and ambition as it is the people. Both cogs need to be turning in unison for culture to flourish.

Improving culture with IIP

An organisation that has placed culture at the centre of its business plan is Brother UK. IIP Platinum Employer of the Year winner in 2016, Brother UK has been incredibly dynamic in using the IIP framework to assist with the development of a people-focussed culture.

Led by Phil Jones MBE, Brother UK’s approach to culture places sustainability and adaptability as the cornerstone of daily practice. Therefore, when hiring, it would make sense for recruiters to look for these qualities in applicants as part and parcel of developing that ‘likeminded’ culture that I’ve been talking about.

Brother UK also sets out its leadership principles for external audiences as: non-hierarchical, kinetic in nature with a fixed growth mindset. They also commit to operating in a permanent state of alacrity, meaning they’re poised and positive when taking on a challenge. Setting out cultural ambition in such a concise and direct manner allows consumers and prospective employees alike to take stock of the company’s ethos.

Hiring for cultural fit is important and the process transcends personality traits. It’s the understanding that having likeminded people doesn’t mean having an organisation filled with people who think, plan and innovate in the same way. Like-mindedness comes in many forms; in my opinion the most important to culture is an alignment between employees around motivation and purpose.