The Do’s and Don’ts of considering cultural fit when recruiting your next new hire

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Retention Starts at Recruitment: (https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/how-recruit-long-term-succession-partners-leadership-app/?trackingId=yG%2Fbrmz8WVf6nxQnV2PcRQ%3D%3D

At Succession Partners we are increasingly seeing employers ask potential candidates to go well above and beyond what would normally be required in the very early stages of the recruitment process to assess skillset.

This can inevitably put candidates off and retention and buy-in is lost midway through the hiring process.

One way to avoid this is to focus on a candidate’s cultural fit during the early stages of the recruitment process.

In the candidate driven market where applicants are more carefully considering who they want to work for, it is critical to factor in that, according to a recent Glassdoor survey 73% of applicants say they would only apply to a company that has similar values to them.

Other benefits of hiring with Cultural Fit in mind, include: faster assimilation into the company and new role, improved employee retention, greater overall job satisfaction and stronger performance.

Cultural fit speaks to how a new hire would fit and add to your company culture and not just if they would be fun to go out for a drink after work! So…

Do:

Take the time to understand and define your company’s culture.

• ??What makes it tick?
• ??What are the underlying values?
• ??How do employees interact?
• ??What is the working environment?

Then communicate those values. Communicate them clearly and communicate them often! On your website, on your social media content and on your recruitment communications so that people know what they are coming in for from the outset.

?Don’t:?

Confuse age, gender, and background with company culture. This often leads to a homogenous workforce that lacks innovation and even empathy. Again, Cultural Fit is about embracing and aligning with your vision and mission for the company, the workplace, your industry.

Cultural Fit is a 2-way street! Yes. Future hires should understand and embrace your culture, but you need to determine their own values and vision to ensure it’s a match! So…

?

Do:

Pay attention to often overlooked soft skills such as professionalism, adaptability, willingness to listen, critical thinking and interpersonal skills, to name a few. These should be assessed during the interview process by observation and through carefully considered interview questions.

Provide ample opportunity for the applicants to tell you who they are, what is important to them and what they will need to thrive in their role beyond their skillset and experience.

?

Don’t:

Gloss over what may seem like just a small detail. A candidate who values tested methodologies and proven processes may not fully adjust to a company that banks on agility, adaptability and innovation.

When candidates tell you who they are, believe them!

To be clear, we’re not saying specific skill-sets don’t matter. They do!

We are saying that a cultural match can be less time consuming, potentially more engaging and less tedious for candidates who are put off by lengthy evaluation tasks and processes to evaluate skills that they know will evolve and change over time.