Company Culture in Recruitment

What is it? Why is it Important? How can you get it “right” and how do you know?

What is it?

Broadly you could define company culture as the accepted and demonstrated behaviours & standards of your team.?It transcends the business and you can notice it on the Sales floor, back office and board room.

Culture is difficult to visualise and get right because it does not live in Key Performance Indicators or strategy, but it’s often causal when those are going well or badly.

Is it Essential to have a great company culture?

This depends on your strategy and ambition. Financially viable business’ can make their revenue in environments not synonymous with great culture. ?Culture gains significance when the business judges its performance against what it could be, and not what is.???

Why is culture important in a business?

If you have a productive view of culture and implement it successfully then your business will make more revenue.?It will also be sustainable and of scale.??Maintaining a profitable sales floor with poor culture often means increased time and spend on re-hiring and training.?It means your business is not what it could be.?

Working within a culture that is inspiring, productive and of high mutual standards and expectations will not only give your team a more enjoyable place to build their career, it will bring the best out of you.

How can you get it “right” ?

Common in business leaders is the desirable outcome. An enjoyable and affirming place to work, productive, supportive, ?efficient and career enabling across the board.?

Realization of this is as difficult as you would expect for something so valuable.?There are a few fundamentals:

·???????A great company culture may benefit the bottom line, but the primary purpose is to benefit the team.?Make sure you have these priorities sincerely in mind. ?

·???????Substance.?Talk without action isn’t cheap when it comes to culture, it’s an expense to your trust and credibility.?Creating the environment and outcomes you want will take time, strategy and sincerity; not hype. ?

·???????Investment. Creating the pathways for career development, positive recognition, the upholding of standards and a genuinely inclusive and fun working environment requires time, strategy and planning.

Top Down

In consultation with business leaders, culture has been viewed as a vehicle for transformation in the bottom line via the Sales floor.

It is a tempting path to address culture at this junction, but this is almost always a mistake.??The first place to look is at your own standards and behaviours with honesty.?Then, engage you’re leadership team and work towards a shared set of values and beliefs.?Only at this point can you begin to create a culture that has a chance of successful adoption. ?

It’s never a closed deal.

There are recruitment business’ who claim a genuinely great working culture.?In the moment.??I’ve been fortunate to experience excellent company culture during my career in recruitment but I’ve seen poor culture follow within the same environments just 6 months later.

Opportunities to compromise culture will readily present themselves.?You’ll notice this when considering hiring or retaining high performers that resist cultural expectations and in many other weighted financial choices you need to make a call on.

You’ll also need to enforce your standards.?One guaranteed way to see a great performing culture erode is for employees to see the business tolerating sub-standard productivity and behaviours elsewhere.

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At Sharkfin Consulting we have enjoyed supported Recruitment Business’ with cultural change and transformation.?Our team have the in-house experience of creation, maintenance, success & learnings of failure when it comes to creating an inspirational company culture that lasts.

Holding plans of action, born from structured and proven approaches, we are able to work with you and your leadership teams to transform your business and it’s output.

Feel free to reach out to myself or the team for an open discussion about this.