Cultural fit is critical when choosing the best candidate for the job. It’s hard to find a recruiter who has never felt this way: the interview with the candidate has barely begun – in person, via call, or by phone – and that alert of “attention, zero cultural fits detected!” already shines brighter than the illuminated signs of Las Vegas.
It is very difficult for HR after the technological revolution to deal with such different technical profiles and the profusion of new and (increasingly) specialized roles that emerge. One point remains intact, however: the need to have the eyes of a lynx to identify from afar essential emotional skills in the professional being evaluated.
We’ve been talking about it a lot here on the blog: even the highest technical talent doesn’t justify allowing negative characteristics, such as empathy, disrespect for colleagues and attention only to your own belly button, to contaminate the work environment you’ve been carefully building.
Pause to rescue is a very cool material we made about the 12 questions that every developer recruiter should have on the tip of their tongue.
What does Gandhi have to do with cultural fit?
We suggest taking a look at what Dr. Natalie Baumgartner, psychologist, and co-founder of RoundPegg, a platform focused on organizational culture, talk about it.
Spoiler alert: the example she chose to talk about cultural fit is the peace activist Gandhi and his multiple facets
The Air platform, which works with corporate management, training, and onboarding of employees, created a cultural fit quiz for those who want to work in a startup. And it goes straight to the point with questions like:
What stands out to you the most about a job opening for a startup?
a) The horizontal form of the company and flexible hours.
b) The ping pong table and happy hour on Friday.
Culture Code, the company bible
Finding the right person for the right job is a science, because it uses method, in addition to sensitivity. Ensuring the correct movement of contractors and contractors on this board is also an art. No wonder, the challenge of selecting, attracting, and retaining has been increasingly recognized as a strategic business event and, why not, vital for organizations.
This has been gaining so much strength that Administration courses and entities/institutions dedicated to training or updating people management professionals are reviewing their content and including tools that help to map profiles that are more compatible with vacancies.
The culture code is the bible of the company’s values and beliefs, a kind of RG on which its differentials are printed, a document that lists what the organization believes, practices and values. Thus, everyone – from employees to suppliers – can better locate themselves in that habitat and have no doubts about what the company expects from their work.
This story of developing a booklet that defines the culture of organizations began with Netflix, which in 2009 sambaed in the face of society by producing its own. From there, the business went viral among companies and the examples are multiplying today.
Companies like Glassdoor, one of the pioneers on the subject, share their experience in creating a company culture code. One of the initial tips is to think of words or phrases that define you. In their case, the list looked like this:
- People first: value and respect each other;
- Integrity: Always do the right thing;
- Passion: get involved rationally and emotionally;
- Think like an owner: treat the company as your own;
- Responsibility: make what you say count;
- Leadership: build a better future.
Take a look here.
The egg or the chicken?
First, comes the culture code, then the cultural fit assessment, right? There’s no way you can be sure about the suitability of a candidate for a job when you don’t have a clear company culture! After all, the culture code has to be born before the suitability assessment – or you’ll stay with the one who came before, The egg or the chicken? 🙂
After ensuring that this step has been completed, let’s move on to the next: how to apply cultural fit tests to complement your technical assessments.
There are companies that specialize in this, as a partner of ours, here at Geekhunter: Solides, a platform that works with Profiler Management, complete software for HR and behavioral management.
It works with behavioral analysis, mapping the candidate’s profile, based on a methodology that evaluates the person in a given context. It also analyzes teams; works on leadership and compares the person’s skills to the intended position.
Another platform that works along the same lines is Qulture.Rocks, which helps to create a high-performance culture.
It works with performance management, with a suite of products for feedback, goal management, and performance evaluations, by competence and 360 degrees. They produce a lot of content too, like this ebook on Google performance management, which breaks down the company’s performance reviews, 360 feedback, and OKRs.
Investing in cultural fit makes the company closer to having a team with people who match it, are happy, and engaged, in addition to reducing turnover.
There are also personality tests, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator method, which provides insights into the behavior of the person being evaluated and metrics to define personality types.
Be calm! Don’t turn cultural fit into a trap
As with everything, caution is needed when mapping cultural fit, warn experts. In fact, the magic word is common sense – as with everything in life, no?
In an article for Forbes, Kelly Kenard, talent expert at Battery Ventures, chooses 5 points for us to keep an eye on, before rushing into a cultural fit assessment:
1- Immediate chemistry of the candidate with the team. Chemistry requires time, so, according to the expert, be careful not to jump to conclusions in this regard;
2- Give a lot of value to age. It is not by chance that the so-called blind curricula now appear, where this type of information loses value. Be open to differences;
3- Consensual approval of the novice. There are companies that democratize the selection to the extreme, making the approval become a real ordeal, with the entire team being summoned to interview the victim… oops, the candidate!
4- To think that the good is the night-turner. You can be more efficient in less work time and with more organization.
5- Lower the guillotine in the face of a single bad reference. If the candidate seems suitable and the only thing against him so far is a bad experience with a particular company, don’t automatically dismiss it. Take one more step to understand what happened.
Where to start? Smart hunting!
Use smart solutions to help your company in this very complex process that is talent hunting in programming. There are platforms that use Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to facilitate the identification of the candidate that best matches your vacancy.
