Most job openings attract a large number of individuals who are fully qualified for the position. However, only a few of them are qualified to work for your company. And among that limited group, there is one who is a perfect match for your culture.
It’s difficult to do a cultural fit interview properly. It’s simple to pose creative questions and gravitate toward candidates who provide well-thought-out responses. However, unless the questions are culturally relevant, you may be focusing on the incorrect people.
Worse, using the incorrect approach permits biases to impact candidate evaluations. In certain circumstances, culture fit is used mistakenly to explain employing someone with a comparable background to those already on staff.
All of this is to say that if you care about culture fit, you should include it in your interview process. All you have to do now is follow the proper steps and avoid the traps to hire people who will add value to your company’s culture.
Define your culture and ask the appropriate questions.
Many interviewers look up culture-fit questions on the internet or repeat fascinating ones they’ve heard before. That’s why questions like “How would your former employees describe you?” are so important. The questions “What excites you about coming to work?” and “What excites you about arriving to work?” are very common.
It’s not that these are horrible questions. The problem is that they don’t assist you to discover anything new about the candidates. They’re just filler inquiries that waste time when you could be talking about something more important.
It should be simple to come up with intelligent interview questions if your company has gone through the process of identifying its culture. The responses candidates offer, as well as the subsequent discussion will help you discover people who share your values and can already see how they’ll apply them to their job.
If you’re looking for culture-fit interview questions on Google, you’re probably not ready to make it a part of your hiring process. Our handy worksheet will assist you in defining your culture so that you may ask the appropriate questions.
Inquire about previous cultural examples.
Even if your company’s culture is well defined, some employees will struggle to articulate what it means to them. When it comes to addressing your interview questions, a candidate may share your beliefs yet struggle to put them into words. Others may be a bad cultural match yet still provide you with the information you require.
You can get around this problem by using behavioral interview questions. Let’s say one of your values is “ownership.” Instead of asking, “How will you take ownership in this role?” instead, “Tell me about a moment in a previous job when you spotted a problem or opportunity and took control of it.”
By eliciting concrete examples, you can cut through the clutter and learn how candidates have already incorporated your principles into their work.
Allow someone else to evaluate the culture.
As the hiring process progresses, certain prospects will begin to stand out. There will be people with a proven track record of accomplishment in past positions or exceptional skill sets who can help your company.
Now it’s time to examine cultural fit, and you’ve already decided on a candidate. In these cases, your previous contacts may have influenced your decision. It’s simple to sign off on a candidate as a culture fit without giving it enough thought instead of objectively analyzing them.
Many companies have their hiring team review each candidate’s abilities and history before bringing in someone from another department to assess cultural fit. It’s fine if this person has minimal knowledge of the candidate’s qualifications. They can talk about what it’s like to work for your company and tell the recruiting team whether they think the prospect would be a good fit.
Make culture a minor consideration in your hiring process.
When it comes to hiring, culture fit is crucial, but it should be a secondary consideration. In the end, you should hire the best individual for the position, not the one that fits in best with your team. If you place too much emphasis on culture, you risk making hiring decisions based on the wrong criteria.
To support your applicant evaluations, we recommend using culture fit. Make sure candidates have the necessary skills and knowledge for the job, then have a chat with them about what your company values in its employees. You’ll soon be welcome a superb all-around employee to your team if everyone feels they’re the ideal person for the job.