How to Know if a Candidate is a Culture Fit
When it comes to recruiting new talent, there are several things an employer must assess. Skills, qualifications, work experience, and professionalism are all qualities that employers actively evaluate during the hiring process. One quality that is often overlooked, but just as important as aspects like skills and experience, is whether the candidate is a culture fit.
Choosing a candidate that’s a good fit with the company’s culture is incredibly valuable, and fosters an on-boarding experience where the new employee can easily transition and work with current employees. However, assessing a candidate for a cultural fit is not nearly as straightforward as assessing their qualifications.
As a professional recruitment agency, we have a wealth of experience evaluating candidates based on a variety of qualities, including their culture fit. Keep reading to learn about the intuitive ways we identify whether a candidate is a cultural fit within your organization.
What is a Company Culture?
A company culture is a set of values, attitudes, standards, and beliefs all held by the individuals within the company. Your company may have written values that one can refer to, but there’s also unspoken rules that the people within your company naturally believe in and follow. A company culture is not set in stone and doesn’t always need to stay the same. The early beginnings of a company culture is set by the company’s leadership and then cultivated by every person that follows.
Company culture is a broad term and not-easily defined. A few common traits that define one’s company culture is whether a team is more flexible when it comes to decision-making or if decisions must pass through certain people first. For a candidate that values flexibility, the later would not be a great cultural fit for them.
Moreover, does the company value creativity and innovation, or do they seek quick learners who can follow pre-set instructions consistently? Although they seem minor, these are traits that constantly divide companies, as well as the candidates that apply to them.
Why Does Cultural Fit Matter in Recruitment?
A cultural fit is about more than a personality hire. A cultural fit matters in recruitment because it affects a candidate’s job satisfaction and productivity. It also impacts overall employee turnover and retention. When employees are unmotivated, they fail to excel in their position and bring tangible results to the company.
Additionally, a bad cultural fit could lead to a decrease in team morale and collaboration and an increase in internal conflicts and stress within the team.
How to Know if a Candidate is a Culture Fit
Observing their Personality and Behaviour: Knowing if a candidate is a culture fit starts from the first interview. Although interviews are a more formal environment, this initial meeting will still give you a strong impression of their personality. For example, you can gather whether a candidate is outgoing or reserved by how they steer the conversation. Are they eager to start conversation, ask questions, and respond to your questions? Do they play a part in driving the conversation, or do they wait for you to speak before speaking themselves? This is one way to get an early idea of how they fit in your company culture.
Take Outside Factors into Consideration: Although you can gather a lot about a candidate during the first interview, it’s important to be mindful of outside factors that may influence their behaviour. A first interview is a nerve-wracking experience for just about any candidate, as such, you’ll notice more awkwardness and shyness than the person would normally exhibit. You shouldn’t take your first impression of a person as the end all be all, especially when circumstances may cause them to act out of character.
Use a Personality Questionnaire: Some organizations choose to have candidates fill out a personality questionnaire. This questionnaire includes questions specifically tailored to your company’s culture. This is a straightforward approach that can definitely be effective at assessing one’s cultural fit, but at the cost of slowing down recruitment by adding an extra step to the hiring process.
Asking Behaviour-Driven Interview Questions: Ask them questions that directly or inadvertently show you what their natural personality is like and whether it aligns with your company culture. Below, we will provide some effective interview questions we ask candidates when assessing if they’re a good fit for our client’s company culture.
10 Revealing Interview Questions to Assess a Candidate’s Cultural Fit
What motivates you in your day-to-day work?
What was the company culture like in your previous role? Is there anything you liked or disliked about it?
What qualities do you think makes a good team member versus a bad team member?
What do you do when you mess up a job task?
What does having a work-life balance look like to you?
What is your leadership style like?
Describe your core work values and how these values can contribute to our company.
Do you think it’s important to build a friendship with your co-workers?
What makes someone a good manager in your opinion?
Have you ever had a personal conflict in the workplace or in school? How did you handle it?
Let Campbell Morden Pre-Screen Your Candidates
Let’s be honest. Screening candidates is not easy for the average company leader. From the early stages of scouring through hundreds of resumes, to the late stages of interviewing and choosing a candidate — each hiring stage presents its own unique challenges. When you’re hiring while simultaneously taking care of your day-to-day workplace responsibilities, recruitment becomes a nuisance that actively slows down your operations.
That’s why many companies just like yours have hired a recruitment agency. At Campbell Morden, we take care of the tough parts of hiring so you can enjoy the best parts. We are trained to effectively and objectively assess potential candidates based on their skills, experience, soft skills, and cultural fit.
We sit down with each of our clients to get a firm grasp of their company's values, aspirations, and current, as well as future, needs. We do this to determine where each of these areas are reflected in your candidates, ensuring you hire someone who isn’t just a right fit in skills and experience, but also in company culture.
