If you don’t know your culture, you’ll hire the wrong fit.
By Dr. Elizabeth D. Rios
Recently, an article on hiring the ideal candidate for a job mentioned that those doing the hiring in a company should take into account the culture of the organization.
I’ve worked many years (as an employee) and alongside organizations (as a consultant), and it’s amazing how many people who are responsible for hiring don’t have a clue about the term organizational culture in general. But worse, they don’t know their own company’s culture and because they don’t, they go on to hire someone who may be amazing on paper but the wrong fit for the company.
Now, you may think that it is the company who loses out but in actuality it is both. You see, a company that doesn’t frequently take their culture temperature really shouldn’t be in business because while they may be producing a good product, they are killing spirits daily. Culture is dismissed too often as unimportant. Yet, it is unfair for a new employee to think they are going into a particular organization sold to them at an interview to then have to find out that what they were sold was a fairy tale. This either leads to unhappy administrators because they want someone to fit and by fit I mean one that becomes like everyone else there. It could be one that never tells the truth, never shares differing opinions, doesn’t seek to challenge the system for the greater good of the organization and essentially, is a yes person. It also leads to a very unhappy employee because they now have to determine if they will grin and bear it or leave the job they just started.
Harvard Business Review posted an article stating that hiring professionals should tell the truth to job candidates about the role they are interviewing for. So for those sitting in the hiring chair, please consider these three things when interviewing candidates:
- You expect prospective employees to do their homework, try doing some of your own. How is the attrition rate at your organization? Do people feel celebrated? Heck, do YOU feel celebrated? How does the company evaluate employee satisfaction? How does it communicate unpleasant information? Ask current employees. What does the media say about your company? What do the job review sites say about your company?
- Know what you are really evaluating for. Many hiring managers say they are looking for chemistry, skills and experience but are you really? Chemistry with who? A toxic boss? Skills for what? To tolerate staying quiet when the monkeys are loose in the circus? Experience in what? Staying longer than they should?
- Be honest with yourself first. If it is your responsibility to hire people and staff turnover costs the company money in the long and short term, be honest with yourself and know the culture you have, not the culture you want to sell.
The Robert Walters Group, a specialist in professional recruitment put out a white paper that shared that 90% of employers say it is very important to find a good cultural fit. Yet 67% of professionals felt that they were misled about company culture in the interview and even during onboarding.
We have a problem people. In a time being called the era of the “great resignation” where more people are realizing after so much time at home during COVID-19 that they really do not like their jobs, many companies are having a hard time finding and keeping employees. As a matter of fact, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 4 million Americans quit their jobs in July 2021.
So if it truly is important to your company to find the right fit and keep them there, do your job, know your culture, tell the truth and you’ll find your fit.
