Did you know that when employees feel like they’re a good cultural fit, they feel higher job satisfaction (90%), are better at their roles (84%) and are less likely to leave (81%)?
While employees who don’t feel like they’re a good cultural fit feel demotivated (74%), hate coming to work (64%) and want to leave their company ASAP (69%).
Assessing candidates for cultural add and fit throughout the application and interview process is vital for hiring employees who will not only do their job, but thrive in it, and want to progress with your company long term.
Here are a few key ways to assess candidate cultural add and fit during the interview stages.
Cultural Add Vs. Cultural Fit
We’re all familiar with the concept of hiring for “cultural fit”.
That is, ensuring candidates not only have the right skills and qualifications to fulfil a given role but also that they align with your company’s values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours.
Recruiters today, however, are increasingly leaning towards the concept of hiring for “cultural add”.
Hiring for cultural add involves not only assessing whether a candidate will fit seamlessly into your existing culture, but that they’ll also actively improve and build upon it by bringing in a set of skills or traits that your existing team members currently don’t have.
So, while cultural fit promotes cohesion, cultural add promotes growth and adaptability.
Below, we’ll outline how to assess candidates for both cultural add and fit throughout the interview process.
Start by Defining your Company Culture
You can’t assess candidates for cultural fit or add if you don’t have a solid definition of what your company culture actually looks like.
Having a deep understanding of your existing culture helps you identify the types of hires you need to make to help your business grow, as well as the specific traits to look for in a candidate.
Start by reflecting on your company mission, strategic goals and values, and the specific traits and sets of behaviours that align most closely with those. For example, if you’re a tech company specialising in developing innovative tech solutions, you might value traits such as innovation, integrity and collaboration.
It’s also a good idea to conduct surveys, interviews and focus groups with existing employees to get a handle on their perspectives of your culture, core values, leadership style and the employee lifecycle as a whole. It’s no good brainstorming with your C-suite and ignoring the perspectives of the majority of your staff.
Once you understand your culture, you can determine the types of personalities and behaviours that will be a great cultural fit, as well as determine which behaviours and traits you want to look out for for cultural add.
Struggling to articulate your company culture? As part of our Talent OS – Measure service, we work alongside you to help you gain a better understanding of what makes your business tick and the specific characteristics and personality traits to look for to help you grow.
Learn more via our website here.
Introduce Industry-Leading Personality Profiling and Testing
Interviews can be an unreliable way of screening candidates for cultural add and fit.
That’s because they’re inherently subjective, offer limited interaction with candidates and can be inauthentic, as interviewees are actively trying to make a good impression.
Psychometric testing and personality profiling, on the other hand, give you objective, data-driven insights on a potential candidate’s characteristics, traits, behaviours and cognitive abilities, and are proven to be able to accurately predict how a candidate will perform in a future role.
This not only provides concrete evidence on candidate suitability but also gives you a standardised, unbiased approach to assessing cultural fit.
So, how do you get started?
There are no one-size-fits-all tests, questions or scenarios for assessing candidates for cultural add and fit.
We recommend creating bespoke assessment campaigns and questionnaires to assess and select candidates using the traits that are most relevant to the role and your business culture.
Need support with psychometric testing and personality profiling? With our Talent OS – Measure service, you can choose from 46 built-in personality scales or use the custom personality questionnaire builder, as well as get access to industry-leading cognitive ability and situational judgement assessments.
Get a Specialist Recruiter’s Help
If you struggle to define your company culture and assess candidates against it, it can be worth seeking out a specialist recruiter who can handle the entire process on your behalf.
A specialist recruiter will have deep expertise in understanding and assessing cultural fit, as well as the ability to help you define and articulate your company culture based on industry trends and best practices.
They’ll also have access to a variety of industry-leading assessment tools and resources, and experience tailoring psychometric assessments with specific company needs and cultures.
Not to mention, psychometric testing can come with various legal and ethical considerations, so a specialist recruiter will help you to navigate these standards and ensure compliance.
Our Talent OS – Measure service is designed to help companies like yours find candidates with the right skills, experience and cultural fit using industry-leading psychometric and organisational assessment tools.
We work alongside you to not only understand what makes your business tick and how you can improve your culture through hiring, but also build bespoke campaigns and assess candidate suitability.
Learn more via our website here.
Looking for a Better Way to Hire?
- Screen candidates using industry-leading tools and tests
- Reduce risk and cost of hiring
- Understand how to improve your business culture through hiring
Head to our website to learn more.
