Are You a “Fit” for My Company’s Culture?
Over the last few weeks, I’ve brought three new people into our firm, two veteran financial planners and a person to provide market research and analysis for our growing team of advisors.
What has this got to do with tips for job seekers? Everything, because to get to these three I had to “say no” to dozens of quality candidates who were not going to be a “fit” for our company’s unique culture.
Our firm, like so many others, works very diligently to ensure that it maintains its “mojo” – that “thing” – the “energy” - which does so much to make one company different from all of its competitors.
And that “mojo” cannot exist without the synergies that are created by combining the wide variety of individual talents into a cohesive team that is focused on exceeding the expectations of our clients. Every person on our team understands that they all “own” every client, every prospect and every person who comes in to see us – including the UPS guy.
Bottom line – that is our firm’s culture. It defines us. To be a part of our team, you need to be a fit for that culture…not a good fit, but a GREAT fit.
Sound like something you might have read recently in some business book? Maybe, but I consider this to be just plain common sense.
When I interview candidates, I’m thinking, “Would the owner of the company be proud to have this person as part of his firm, or embarrassed?” and “If our best client walked in the front door of our company and this candidate was the first person with whom they had contact, what would be their impression?”
OK, so you need to be a great fit for a company’s culture – how do you go about figuring out what that is exactly and then convey it credibly to the screener, recruiter and hiring manager? Here are a few tips to consider (by the way, there is a very strong correlation between your perceived personal brand and what you convey that will position you as being a fit for the employer’s culture):
Research, Research, Research…Yes, one of my favorite points to harp on. Candidates literally have the world at their fingertips and can use the Internet to find out virtually everything there is to know about a company’s culture, vision, mission, etc (“the good, the bad and the ugly”, as the saying goes). From the company's own website and press releases to online employee forums and financial analysts’ reports, figuring out what an organization stands for should be relatively easy. By the way…30+ years of hiring experience and a multitude of discussions with other hiring managers, HR Managers and professional recruiters have proven the sad reality that the vast majority of candidates spend little to no time doing any meaningful research on a targeted employer.
Networking – This continues to be one of the best resources for candidates to learn about what makes a prospective employer “tick”. Use LinkedIn to do an Advanced People Search to find people who work for a targeted company. Use your connections to put you together with some of the folks you will inevitably find on this list who are 2nd level connections to you on LinkedIn. So, get to work and ask for some introductions to these people. If anyone can tell you about the culture of a prospective employer…the employees can! Again – not only do most candidates “hate” networking and, thus do very little of it, but only a small percentage are doing an effective job of this type of in-depth connecting to uncover valuable resources within the target organization.
Visit the Targeted Employer to get a “lay of the land”. Whether you have an interview scheduled or not…go to the company’s main location and observe what is going on. What do their clients/visitors “look like”, is the lobby filled with pictures of the founder/owners or are there news clippings and photos regarding employees who are volunteering in local community organizations? Introduce yourself to the Receptionist (aka, the gatekeeper) and let them know that you are considering applying for a position at the company and stopped by to get a feel for the atmosphere/surroundings. Ask the Receptionist to tell you three reasons why they like working for the company. Most likely, “news” of your visit will be shared by the Receptionist with HR or the hiring manager, which will be the first step in differentiating you from other candidates (since most candidates don’t invest any time in making this type of pre-application/pre-interview visitation).
Selling the Brand – Personal Brand…one of the most frequently used buzzwords of the last few years, and one of the least understood. What is your personal brand? You may say/feel strongly that it is “X”, which means very little if clients, colleagues, co-workers and supervisors perceive your brand to be “Y”. Below are some questions to ask yourself, which should help you to begin clarifying what others see as your brand:
• What is your particular expertise?
• What value do you bring to the table?
• When people think of you, with what characteristics are you associated?
• Why were/are you asked to be on teams, committees or task forces? Why aren’t you?
• Why did your clients chose to work with you?
• When did/do others in the company come to seek your assistance?
Your personal brand must fit within the group/team/division and ultimately the company’s culture. If it does, you need to sell that critical point to the interviewer(s).
Skills and your ability to apply them within the defined job function to create exceptional results gets you on the short list of finalists, the candidate with the best perceived cultural fit will usually get the offer.
Consider this…
• When we begin to have serious relationships and seek out a soul mate, our parents tell us, “there are many fish in the sea”. True, and we are seeking to catch the one with whom we have the right "chemistry”.
• There are many good quarterbacks who play professional football, but coaches and general managers will tell the media that they chose a certain player because, “he was the best fit for our system”.
• How many times have you told one co-worker about another, “he/she is perfect for that job”. What was there about that person that prompted you to make such a statement?
Convince me, the hiring manager, that you will not only help to maintain the “mojo” which helps define my organization, but also bring to the table the skills, talents, experience and personal dynamic (“fit”) that will make it stronger.
What has this got to do with tips for job seekers? Everything, because to get to these three I had to “say no” to dozens of quality candidates who were not going to be a “fit” for our company’s unique culture.
Our firm, like so many others, works very diligently to ensure that it maintains its “mojo” – that “thing” – the “energy” - which does so much to make one company different from all of its competitors.
And that “mojo” cannot exist without the synergies that are created by combining the wide variety of individual talents into a cohesive team that is focused on exceeding the expectations of our clients. Every person on our team understands that they all “own” every client, every prospect and every person who comes in to see us – including the UPS guy.
Bottom line – that is our firm’s culture. It defines us. To be a part of our team, you need to be a fit for that culture…not a good fit, but a GREAT fit.
Sound like something you might have read recently in some business book? Maybe, but I consider this to be just plain common sense.
When I interview candidates, I’m thinking, “Would the owner of the company be proud to have this person as part of his firm, or embarrassed?” and “If our best client walked in the front door of our company and this candidate was the first person with whom they had contact, what would be their impression?”
OK, so you need to be a great fit for a company’s culture – how do you go about figuring out what that is exactly and then convey it credibly to the screener, recruiter and hiring manager? Here are a few tips to consider (by the way, there is a very strong correlation between your perceived personal brand and what you convey that will position you as being a fit for the employer’s culture):
Research, Research, Research…Yes, one of my favorite points to harp on. Candidates literally have the world at their fingertips and can use the Internet to find out virtually everything there is to know about a company’s culture, vision, mission, etc (“the good, the bad and the ugly”, as the saying goes). From the company's own website and press releases to online employee forums and financial analysts’ reports, figuring out what an organization stands for should be relatively easy. By the way…30+ years of hiring experience and a multitude of discussions with other hiring managers, HR Managers and professional recruiters have proven the sad reality that the vast majority of candidates spend little to no time doing any meaningful research on a targeted employer.
Networking – This continues to be one of the best resources for candidates to learn about what makes a prospective employer “tick”. Use LinkedIn to do an Advanced People Search to find people who work for a targeted company. Use your connections to put you together with some of the folks you will inevitably find on this list who are 2nd level connections to you on LinkedIn. So, get to work and ask for some introductions to these people. If anyone can tell you about the culture of a prospective employer…the employees can! Again – not only do most candidates “hate” networking and, thus do very little of it, but only a small percentage are doing an effective job of this type of in-depth connecting to uncover valuable resources within the target organization.
Visit the Targeted Employer to get a “lay of the land”. Whether you have an interview scheduled or not…go to the company’s main location and observe what is going on. What do their clients/visitors “look like”, is the lobby filled with pictures of the founder/owners or are there news clippings and photos regarding employees who are volunteering in local community organizations? Introduce yourself to the Receptionist (aka, the gatekeeper) and let them know that you are considering applying for a position at the company and stopped by to get a feel for the atmosphere/surroundings. Ask the Receptionist to tell you three reasons why they like working for the company. Most likely, “news” of your visit will be shared by the Receptionist with HR or the hiring manager, which will be the first step in differentiating you from other candidates (since most candidates don’t invest any time in making this type of pre-application/pre-interview visitation).
Selling the Brand – Personal Brand…one of the most frequently used buzzwords of the last few years, and one of the least understood. What is your personal brand? You may say/feel strongly that it is “X”, which means very little if clients, colleagues, co-workers and supervisors perceive your brand to be “Y”. Below are some questions to ask yourself, which should help you to begin clarifying what others see as your brand:
• What is your particular expertise?
• What value do you bring to the table?
• When people think of you, with what characteristics are you associated?
• Why were/are you asked to be on teams, committees or task forces? Why aren’t you?
• Why did your clients chose to work with you?
• When did/do others in the company come to seek your assistance?
Your personal brand must fit within the group/team/division and ultimately the company’s culture. If it does, you need to sell that critical point to the interviewer(s).
Skills and your ability to apply them within the defined job function to create exceptional results gets you on the short list of finalists, the candidate with the best perceived cultural fit will usually get the offer.
Consider this…
• When we begin to have serious relationships and seek out a soul mate, our parents tell us, “there are many fish in the sea”. True, and we are seeking to catch the one with whom we have the right "chemistry”.
• There are many good quarterbacks who play professional football, but coaches and general managers will tell the media that they chose a certain player because, “he was the best fit for our system”.
• How many times have you told one co-worker about another, “he/she is perfect for that job”. What was there about that person that prompted you to make such a statement?
Convince me, the hiring manager, that you will not only help to maintain the “mojo” which helps define my organization, but also bring to the table the skills, talents, experience and personal dynamic (“fit”) that will make it stronger.
Great read, Mike. Lots of good points about cultural "fit." The only problem I see is the absence of objectivity in the hiring process - you're deciding the right candidate based on intuition. Do you know what you're looking for? It's hard for a candidate to provide the right fit if the hiring manager doesn't know what they're looking for, or it's based entirely on subjective measurement.
ReplyDeleteInstead, data should be brought into the decision making process. Instead of relying on 100% intuition on how well the candidate would fit inside the organization's culture, use data to support the decision. It could only be 10% of the decision but having objective data points about what drives the candidate could go a long way towards predicting how successful they may be inside the organization. It would predict how well they would communicate with the team, where the synergies and conflicts may exist. Very useful insight for hiring managers.