I’m both perplexed and amused by the number of queries I’ve received in recent months from business journalists writing articles on how to on-board new hires into a company’s existing culture. The premise is that cultural misfits are inevitable and the inherent challenge is to turn misfits into good fits. Kind of like focusing on risky treatments for a disease that’s easily preventable. Why they don’t want to focus on preventing the disease is anyone’s guess.

Fit happens, it’s not manufactured

To me it’s obvious that the best way to handle “culture” integration is to hire people who fit your culture to begin with. I know this is less sexy than a comprehensive on-boarding program. But, why assume the risk of bringing people on-board who may fail to integrate culturally, when you can avoid it?

Corporate on-boarding has it’s place

This is no attack on the evolving practice of on-boarding. I believe on-boarding to be a valuable service to help speed the integration of executives into a company - but it’s best when focused on helping create a rapport with co-workers, providing insight on the operating dynamics, and speeding up the general learning curve so that new hires can be productive more rapidly than if left to their own devices.

But culture is altogether different. If you’re compatible with the prevailing culture your cultural integration will occur quickly and quite naturally. If you are incompatible with the prevailing culture, an on-boarding program will do little more than help cover up the disparity for a while.

Culture is not something you can learn in a week or two. If team work and integrity are core to your company’s culture - you have to look for these things in your candidates and not hope that an on-boarding program can teach these qualities.

Three simple steps to recruiting candidates who fit your culture.

1) Identify the core characteristics that define your company’s culture. You can’t begin to determine culture fit with a candidate, until you can define your company’s own culture. Isolate the key characteristics that define your culture and then prioritize them as best you can. Typically you will identify two or three core characteristics essential to fitting in with your company’s culture and a few less crucial characteristics that cement the culture fit.

2) Identify the behaviors and actions that best exemplify the characteristics you are looking for. Candidates should embody what you are looking for. Behaviors, in particular, are like “markers.” What kind of behaviors would you expect from somebody who embodies the characteristics you are looking for? List these key behaviors.

3) Assess candidates using behavioral interview techniques and thorough reference checks. The most effective way to ascertain key characteristics is to look for the behaviors you identified by creating open ended, behavioral questions that encourage candidates to express themselves with specific examples of how they did or would respond in certain situations.

A second important evaluation tool is the use of references. Tapping the knowledge of former co-workers and superiors provides important insights. Who better to know the characteristics and behaviors of a person than the people who have worked for years with a particular candidate?

Assessing culture avoids on-boarding risks

Many hiring managers wrongly believe that liking a candidate or having a good rapport with a candidate is a sign of a good fit. It’s not. I know this all too well. It happens I really like Porsche Carreras, but with a baby daughter and a wife who’s well aware of my history on Germany’s autobahns, a Porsche of any kind is not a good fit with our family. Don’t mistake “liking” a candidate as proof of a good fit.

A simple, objective process is more accurate. I’m not an advocate of complex solutions when they’re not needed. When it comes to assessing a candidate’s culture-fit, even a modicum of attention focused on this subject and a simple process like the one described above can greatly improve the odds of landing a good culture fit.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 5th, 2007 at 0:25 and is filed under Employers, Interviewing, Talent Acquisition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.