Two Linked Traits Best Places to Work Have in Common: Values & Culture

Glassdoor recently announced its 2018 Best Places to Work list; a list largely curated from employee survey data. This got us thinking, among the companies honored, what traits do they have in common, and what inspired enough of their employees to have conviction and pride to say, “yes, I work for a great company.”

One word came through clearly when reading through the company profiles – culture.

With much of this year’s HR hot topics and employee water cooler conversations centered around equitable pay, diversity and inclusion, and leadership it all filters through and reflects an organization’s culture.

Culture at its core is the common set of values and the way they are lived throughout the organization. The way people show up every day. While there are many nice perks companies offer such as sponsored happy hours or modern office digs equipped with ping-pong tables and ergo-friendly desks, we should not confuse this as culture.

The values employees celebrate are real diversity, including diversity of thought. That means we, as HR professionals, don’t want to hire with a “like me” bias, which can happen unconsciously when hiring for culture fit. What is important is alignment in each team member’s personal values with the organizational core values.

For example, if your organization values speed and operational efficiency, and you know from the candidate’s interview the person is prone to becoming stressed from a constant pace of change, that employee is likely not going to thrive or feel like they fit in, which will eventually result in disengagement and possible poor performance.

During the hiring process it is important to ask questions to help identify if a candidate shares the organization’s core values and can become an active contributor to the workplace culture. A few of our favorite interview questions to ask are:

1.    What three words describe your work style?

2.    Why are you interested in working for our company?

3.    Are there any causes that you are passionate about?

4.    What kind of leader do you want to work for?

5.    What did and didn’t you like about your last job?

Again, a core values fit is what will create a meaningful cultural fit. Alignment here will create a space that encourages people to fully show up as their authentic selves and bring their discretionary effort to contribute to something they are passionate about.

Sometimes people define culture as what happens when no one is looking. This goes back to a topic High Performanceology is passionate about, which is creating a work environment where people feel safe to be their true self both in and out of the workplace. When we hire people who are consistently authentic, we can expect them to be good stewards of the organization’s brand and culture internally and externally.

With a new year quickly approaching it’s a great time to reflect on your organization’s values and culture and set some goals around your hiring practices. Start by having conversations with your Talent Acquisition team and collecting their feedback; then, invite additional key stakeholders from your Human Resources group to collaborate on creating actions that will set you up for success in 2019. With hiring continuing to be highly competitive, getting focused on values and culture will only help you bring in the right talent to be a champion for your organization.

Want to talk more about grounding your culture in core values? Contact us at [email protected].

 About the Company:

?High Performanceology is a boutique Performance Effectiveness firm. Our Advisors partner with forward-thinking and innovative organizations of all sizes to help build and transform HR teams into agile and resilient leaders. Our proprietary platform assesses not only your talent, but the work as well, and then partners with you to develop a High-Performance Roadmap, equipping your HR leaders with the right tools to win the war on talent in the evolving global business ecosystem.