Hiring For Cultural Fit – Steps, Benefits And Pitfalls In India

The global labour market is undergoing an unprecedented reset in recent years. The Great Resignation is in full swing, driven by a pandemic-induced rethink of life priorities among people around the world. And poor company culture has emerged as a key talking point in the subsequent debate.

An astonishing 62 percent of respondents cited toxic culture as the reason for quitting their jobs in a recent survey. Many more are turning to quiet quitting, putting in the absolute bare minimum work necessary to keep their jobs.

For recruiters and HR managers alike, workplace culture is fast emerging as a critical factor to attract and retain top talent. However, this is not a one-way street – recruiters can also play a vital role in the evolution and maintenance of a strong corporate culture. This is the concept of hiring for cultural fit.

What Is Cultural Fit In Hiring?

The basic idea of culture fit in recruiting is fairly straightforward – it is about looking at the potential impact a particular candidate would have on the company culture. Priority will be given to hiring candidates whose behavioural traits, values, and belief systems are largely aligned with the organisation’s established culture and norms.

This is not a revolutionary concept – according to a New York Times article, screening potential employees for culture fit has been in vogue since at least the 1980s. Several studies (pdf link) suggest that it can have demonstrable benefits for all concerned, with greater job satisfaction for the employee, coworkers and even supervisors.

How To Implement Hiring For Cultural Fit In 6 Steps

The steps required to implement cultural fit-based hiring are broadly the same for most organisations and involve the following steps in a logical order:

1. Understand Your Organisation’s Culture

All organisations develop an internal culture over time, either by accident or by conscious intent. In business, the latter route is always preferred as it gives you the chance to actively avoid the growth of a toxic culture.

An organisation’s culture is a combination of shared values, beliefs, vision for the future, acceptable behaviours and preferred ways to get things done. If the company culture is not clearly defined, you can use tools like the Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) to identify leading strands.

2. Communicate The Culture With Your Audience

The audience in the context of recruitment is, of course, talented jobseekers. According to a recent Glassdoor study, 77 percent of this targeting audience looks at an organisation’s established culture and reputation before applying for a job there.

By broadcasting the main attributes of the culture on a wide range of platforms – the official website of the business, social media handles, recruitment brochures, print media ads and so on – you can increase the chances of attracting better candidates for interviews.

3. Create Proper Awareness Among Recruiters

Recruiters and hiring managers are simultaneously the greatest asset and the Achilles’ heel when it comes to hiring for cultural fit. As the eyes and ears of the company in the hiring process, they can identify promising candidates, provided they have a clear understanding of the desirable attributes and traits.

However, this is also a stage where personal bias can creep in, often unconsciously. As noted by Harvard Business Review, misconceptions about company culture lead to situations where hiring managers seek out candidates that match the existing workforce in gender, ethnicity and other similar characteristics.

This is particularly problematic in a multi-lingual and multi-cultural nation like India, where an Indeed.com survey discovered that 40 percent of employers lack any formal policies to promote diversity, inclusion and belonging. According to the same survey, 73 percent of employees wanted to work in organisations with DI&B policies.

But cultural fit does not have to come at the expense of diversity. To counter such tendencies, try to focus more on a candidate's values, skills and personality traits during the interview. Using a diverse interview panel to rate the cultural fit of candidates can also help reduce the risk of personal bias.

4. Screen Applications Based On Culture Add

When you hire candidates who come from diverse backgrounds, with different skill sets and personalities, it adds to the overall diversity of the team. This is called hiring for ‘culture add’.

Mention desired values and traits into your hiring ads to attract more applications from promising candidates. Cover letters can also provide certain clues regarding a person's career goals, motivation and personality.

To get additional details, you can even request further information through innocuous methods – this could include requesting social media handles, email signatures, and other test tasks that reveal their creativity and approach to work.

5. Ask The Right Questions During The Interview

Use the interview to share more details about the company culture with the candidate. This is important as it also allows the candidate to better gauge if they are a good fit for the organisation. Here are some examples of highly effective culture-fit interview questions:

• What specific attributes of the company attracted you to this job position?
• What do you think about our company culture?
• What do you like most about working in a team?
• What would force you to quit a job in a month?
• What are the things you liked/disliked about your previous workplace culture?
• What do you hope to achieve in our company in one year?

6. Focus On Culture During The Onboarding Process

Even before the pandemic, the turnover rate among new hires hovered around 30 percent in the first three months. According to a recent survey reported by Fortune.com, things have only gotten worse – most new hires start looking for a job within three months.

In the absence of a proper onboarding process, employees end up feeling neglected. Even promising candidates who have a strong alignment with your workplace culture may end up feeling a disconnect in the first few weeks and months.

A comprehensive onboarding process, with special emphasis on increasing awareness about the company culture and expected conduct, can help lasting connections with 80 percent of new hires, according to a survey on the topic.

Why Caution Is Essential When Implementing Culture Fit In India

Established business organisations in India often fall into a sociological trap when they pursue cultural fit, according to Prabir Jha in a highly illuminating article. Hiring is often based on narrow regional and ethnic lines or even behavioural patterns.

With the increased emphasis on hierarchy and leadership authority in Indian organisations, individuals instinctively prioritise conformism. Employees practice a form of cloned behaviour that suffocates creativity and dynamism.

This does not imply that cultural fit is the culprit. A Harvard Business Review article on the topic suggests that the best results come in organisations where cultural diversity is balanced by shared organisational norms and values (company culture).

Ultimately, it is up to business leaders and C-Suite management to properly define (or redefine) organisational culture and hiring processes along more inclusive lines without compromising on core values and goals.