WHY CULTURE FIT IS KEY WHEN HIRING

They match the job spec, and you’re convinced they’ll do great – but how will they fit in with the culture?

No, we’re not talking about whether they dress the same, or have the same personality, but whether their character and values will benefit the company.

It can be hard to reject a ‘great’ candidate who has incredible experience and will do unbelievable things for the company. But how do you define a ‘great’ candidate? They might bring the company money, better processes, or a great marketing strategy, but will they bring the company harmony, collaboration, and a positive aura?

YOUR COMPANY’S VALUES ARE THE FOUNDATION

They determine how you approach business and how you approach people, both employees, and clients.

enable’s core values are:

• We’re trusted

• We care

• We’re entrepreneurial

• We’re authentic

• We’re driven

We support and enable each other to succeed, and we can only continue to do that if we hire people who will do the same.

Whenever you hire, have your values at the front of your mind because values are what make up an organisation.

THEY NEED TO GET ALONG WITH THE TEAM

Your team needs to get along. This isn’t something you ‘hope’ for, it’s something every boss should make practical efforts to strive for.

Not everyone’s going to be best friends – this isn’t a dream world, and conflict is something completely out of your control. But what is in your control is hiring people who show friendly, supportive, and humble attributes

Friendly – this is a no-brainer. Nice people are nice to work around, and it will become an issue very easily if someone’s constantly rude or negative to others

Supportive – if your culture is a priority, collaboration will be too. They go hand in hand because when people collaborate, they’re more creative, they learn more, and they have more fun (having engaged employees is so important).

Humble – this may sound like an odd one. But if you have arrogant employees who act like they’re better than everyone else by being constantly patronising, your other employees won’t be happy.

No matter how hard you try as an individual to keep everyone happy, if you have no ‘culture radar’ when hiring, there will be constant conflict, animosity, and potentially a super toxic culture that you didn’t even mean to create.

And we all know that a toxic culture leads to disengagement and eventually turnover. If you want your current employees to stick around, enjoy the company, and enjoy the company they’re around – hire people they’d work well with… especially when you have a small team.

People join a company because they like the culture, people feel engaged at a company because of the culture, and people stay at a company because of the culture. People care about the people they’re around. It makes a huge impact on a working day and how they feel about the job as a whole.

THEY NEED TO GET ALONG WITH YOU

Their CV impressed you, their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd interview impressed you, and you’re truly excited to see how their experience and skills will impact the company. But what happens when you’re 2 weeks deep into working alongside them and you’re finding them unteachable, rude, and arrogant?

Hiring good people means hiring people who are good at what they do AND just good people in general.

ATTRACTION

Maybe your company has strong values and you believe you can maintain that regardless of who joins, but what if there are more people with poor values than people with positive values?

Or what if those with poor values influence others? It’ll become the culture, reflect the company, and change the way both candidates and employees feel about the company.

Here at enable, of course, there are many perks about joining us, but the one thing we talk about so frequently is our culture. Not because we want to ‘appear’ as a friendly team, but because we are. And we’ll continue to be seen as a nice team because we prioritise hiring friendly people.

NEXT STEPS

• Revaluate your values

• Tweak your interview approach to make sure you get to know more about them as people, not just as workers

• Speak to your employees. What matters to them?

- Written by Oliver Howson

NEED SOME FRIENDLY ADVICE OR MORE TIPS?

If you are looking for more advice or help finding your next job, we can help, please give us a call on: 0117 301 8495 or take a look at our jobs page. Alternatively, if you’re an employer in the South West and South Wales looking to recruit and need someone with real recruiting expertise then we can help – let’s chat.