Small businesses work hard to create and cultivate a company culture. This culture comes not just from the top down but also from what each employee brings to the job.
So when you’re looking for a new employee, how can you make sure you hire someone who fits in with your company’s culture?
- Write job listings with company culture in mind – and pay attention to what kind of responses you get.
Are you a company which prides itself on formality and traditions, or one with a looser more easy-going approach? Make sure you write your job ads in a tone you’d like to see reflected in your applicants. Where a more straight-laced company might use more formal language, somewhere with a more relaxed company culture would be a bit more creative with the description and use more colloquialisms.
And while many job-seekers deliberately use a very formal toe in their application letters, if you get responses which mirror the tone of your ad, where others don’t, you can get an idea of which candidates appreciate a bit about your company’s culture.
- Ask interview questions with culture in mind.
During the interview, along with behavioural interview questions to gauge whether the interviewee is capable of doing the job, it’s worth throwing in some questions which get an idea of if the employee is going to fit in.
Including questions like “what professional achievement are you most proud of?” in your interviews can help you figure out if your company’s values align with your potential employee’s values.
However, it is very important to make sure you are clear on the difference between culture and bias – it’s one thing to say your company’s culture is exciting and adventurous, to say that everyone has to partake in extreme sport means you will discriminate against disabled people and older workers. It is never appropriate to ask about disability, plans for family, or ethnic background under the guise of cultural fit.
- Get your current employees involved.
Setting up an informal chat between your current staff and your potential new hire can help you get an idea of whether the candidate will fit into the job or not. It also allows the candidate to get a more complete picture of work life and whether yours is a company for which they really want to work – remember interviewees are checking you out as much as you’re checking them out.
- Make the most of the trial period.
Sometimes, for whatever reason, you hire someone who doesn’t quite fit in. Perhaps they aren’t as they came across in interview, or perhaps you decided their other skills were more valuable. Fortunately, you have 90 days to see whether the new hire really isn’t someone who can work adequately with your team. Having someone who completely does not gel with your company’s culture can cause disruption at best and drive other employees to leave at worst. While obviously you have to take the decision to let someone go during the 90 day period very seriously – after all it means returning to the expense and hassle of the hiring process, it’s sometimes worth exercising that option if you and your new employee just do not mesh at all.
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