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Recruiting Employees Based on Cultural Fit

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A company’s culture includes all its policies, guidelines, systems and processes as well as shared beliefs, attitudes, common practices, experiences and actions that demonstrate its values. The most important part of company culture is what the business owners, managers and employees understand the consequences of specific behaviors will be whether they are agreed upon in advance or not.

You can clearly define your organization’s culture by observing your employees interactions with each other, management and your clients. Culture is the primary factor in a company’s long-term success. It is one of the main assets of a company that remains stable and consistent in the face of constant change. Recruiting employees based on an organization’s culture is known as hiring for a cultural fit.

What is Cultural Fit?

Cultural fit means an employee’s values, beliefs and behaviors are in alignment with the employer’s values, company culture and long-term goals. A survey of top employers found that eighty percent of managers named cultural fit as one of their top priorities when they hire new staff.

Identify the best reasons why a candidate should choose to work for your company and those will be the distinguishing elements of a good cultural fit. Interviewers should model those attributes throughout the entire hiring process.

Recruiting Based on Cultural Fit

The process starts with recruitment. Emphasizing a good cultural fit must be the goal from the beginning to the end of the hiring process for both the employer and the prospective employee. It is very important that candidates share this goal with the recruiter to achieve the maximum benefit for both.

Actively managing and developing cultural fit throughout the hiring process can significantly improve employee performance, profitability, company growth and ultimately employee retention.

The study “Built to Last” by James Collins and Jerry Porras describes the characteristics of eighteen US companies that remained at the top of each of their industries for more than fifty years. Those organizations placed a large emphasis on hiring, developing and managing employees based on the cultural fit each business wanted to achieve.

The businesses actively promoted the elements of their culture to the candidates they wanted to attract. The employees thrived in their environments and the company enjoyed their longest employee retention periods.

Recruiting based on cultural fit makes hiring the right candidates for your company much easier. The people you hire today will drive the future of your organization tomorrow. Using cultural fit as a recruiting tool, allows you to showcase your culture as a benefit to prospective employees so their expectations are in alignment with your business goals from the very beginning. This is a win-win for both the employer and the new employee.

Cultural Fit Examples

Pacific Crest Group’s (PCG) Human Resources and Employee Development Services provides examples on how using cultural fit as a powerful and motivating process will help you hire employees that will thrive in their roles, drive success for your organization and save you time and money from making costly hiring mistakes.

How We Can Help You

Pacific Crest Group provides professional services that keep your business focused on your critical objectives. We provide strategic Accounting and Human Resource (HR) services created specifically to help you meet your goals. Through exemplary customer service, clearly defined policies and procedures as well as a forward looking perspective, we provide the outsourced solutions your business needs to grow. A PCG professional is happy to meet with you to discuss solutions for your unique requirements designed to maximize all of your business opportunities.