"A poor cultural fit is the primary reason top managers fail, according to executive coaches and recruiters. But there is no perfect way to predict a match. So in addition to the traditional rounds of interviews, networking with prior staffers and review of analysts' reports, senior-management applicants are now being urged to play the role of corporate anthropologist to gauge their compatibility with potential employers—from quizzing future subordinates to dining repeatedly with the boss-to-be." - Wall Street Journal article
Executives have to understand [personal] values before they can know whether there will be a match with the company they are going into, I have valued an atmosphere where honesty, candor and a willingness to entertain and try new ideas would exist.
Before giving the job, I have sought candid chats with people being interviewed. There has always has been a risk of losing the good candidate but giving them a preview of the culture helps build the initial trust and transparency with potential hires.
Interestingly, people liked that "there was nothing to hide", they felt safe and they opened up more to uncover unknown areas of one's personality and character.
The key question to think about is that in the average 10 hours that we spend sourcing and interviewing a candidate, how much time do you spend on talking about the company culture and understanding the individual culture and values that the individual brings to the table.
A good way to start is to take the candidates through one "Success Story" and one "Failure Story" of a person in the company and talk about their individual journeys in the first 12 months in the company. Human Resources Team should help build these "Success Profiles" and share during the interview stage.
I particularly liked the 5 questions that Dharmesh Shah of HubSpot talks about in his article -
5 Quick Questions To Help Determine Culture Fit
1. Do they treat everyone as a peer, regardless of their position and title?
2. Do they immediately look for ways to help?
3. Do they actively meet and connect with people outside their immediate team?
4. Are they unafraid to express their opinions early on?
5. Do they provide feedback so future on boarding experiences are even better?
Look to build your own set of 5 Questions that every interviewer should ask and have a common scale of "Culture Fitment" in the organization.
I found a really interesting self check on Culture Fitment type cast on RoundPegg, a Culture Building Platform for organizations. It took me 5 minutes to set my own Preferences to the Company Culture I would like to work for and it was very insightful. Here is my report and I have add it to my LinkedIn Profile now. And here is my Culture Fitment Report.
~ dheeraj
This is a great article Dheeraj.
ReplyDeleteI believe to talk " The company culture" its also important to build a Strong Culture .
Five points that I could think of to build a Strong Culture.
1. Have strong hiring filters in place. Explicitly filter for people with common outlooks and values early.
2. Constantly emphasize values day to day. Be repetitious of our company culture in our day to day conversations.
3. Reward people based on performance & culture fit. People should be rewarded on both productivity and culture.
4. Get rid of bad culture fits- Identify early bad culture fits even faster than low performers.
5. Determine the sort of people you want to hire.- How do you plan to screen for people with these values in your interviews? What questions do you plan to ask at each stage to surface their values?