ARE YOU HIRING FOR A CULTURE FIT?

Taking his last swig of coffee (from an unusually large cup), the young CEO of a 20 year old conglomerate, continued to blankly stare at me. My last comment had left him puzzled. “Again, how does Culture fit into all this?” he darted at me.

Just about 3 years back, this gentleman had taken reins over from his father and was struggling to assemble his core team, more crucially, retain his best talents. After all the care his hiring managers and he had taken to handpick the best talent, most of them wouldn’t stay better than a year. Their offered pay scales beat the industry best, the facilities and perks were truly unmatched and the growth ladder left much to look forward to. Simply put, the roles offered pretty much all the features any aspiring manager would tag against a 'dream job'. What bothered him more, was that most of them had performed un-remarkably, given the long line-up of outstanding recommendations that preceded them all, and the many stellar achievements that stood testimony to their capabilities.

Having closely studied the core of their organizational persona and its culture for over a month, my conclusions were clear as daylight. “The people you are choosing might be the best, but not RIGHT for where your organization is heading” I argued. “Your organization has been around long enough to have morphed into an ‘Organism’ – a living, sensitive and highly intelligent entity; it has a personality now, you see! It’s time you give it the due credit, and recruit talent that can understand and synergize with its its soul – It’s Culture.”

“How is it an Organism? What’s wrong with its culture? Can you be more specific?” he darted some more.  

“Like any other living organism, your organization is a sum of many parts, all working in synergy to produce an action, an outcome for your business. Since it has been long standing, it has already calibrated its own motor functions and behaviors.” I argued.

“And there is nothing wrong with the culture. You just didn’t know WHAT IS WAS, to start with. Once you pin it down, you know exactly how to work with it, and how to choose people who will complement it towards appreciable growth.”

“So, you mean we don’t need to change anything about the organization?” “Hell no. The organization is just fine. But the leaders who come in, bring their own experiences, traits, values and so, personal culture to the table. All we need to do, is find people who resonate with your organization’s present persona. It’s like drawing the right alliance for your young boy. Simple.” I replied.

“Wow! Never saw my organization from those eyes – It’s literally like you would see your child, ha.”

“Exactly. And begin by clearly understanding your child’s basic personality, and the next steps will follow.”

Our conversation went on for the better part of two hours. But below were the 3 notable take aways that promise to change the HIRING GAME for all business owners:

1.      DEFINE YOUR CULTURE: Before you get into the hiring spree, understand the present culture of your organization. If you hadn’t taken due care of carving it the way you wanted it to be, it’s still not too late. Begin by doing a Culture Definition Exercise in your organization, which will capture the Culture as you intended it to be – and this includes the Vision, Mission, Core Values and Behaviors that you want to encourage, followed immediately by a gap analysis against its current state.

2.      WORK ON THE GAPS: The exercise could throw up some glaring gaps in your ‘As Is’ against your ‘To Be’ states. Awareness is a great starting point. Working towards the latter state is much easier than you think. The Culture Alignment Exercises promise to encourage the right behaviors among existing team members and as a by-product of the process, also identify and red-flag individuals who have long been dragging your growth down.

3.      HIRE FOR THE FUTURE: This being the last, and yet the most crucial steps to leap frogging growth. Based on the cultural traits identified in Step 1, align all the steps involved in the recruitment process. Right from the content and context in the Job description, shortlisting criteria, interview format, interview outcome clarity etc., until the point you align expectations, the cultural traits become the central point of reference. This is precisely the point to ditch all stereotypical approaches to the process. Remember, you are in the process of creating a unique organization; and so your approach cannot be any less unique.

A very part as rightly suggested by a colleague (in the article's comment section), is that the leaders need to believe in the message they propagate. If the leader is not living up to the core values laid by the organization, the whole thing falls apart like a pack of cards. He/ she is the epicenter around which this transition revolves, until the point where the leader can take a backseat and allow the team to do the leading.