The Correlation of People and Culture to the Hiring Process

The hiring process goes beyond just filling positions. As recruiters, you also have to consider bringing in talents who can collectively contribute to the business and ensure culture fit. Otherwise, there would be a high turnover rate and it would cost you 50-60% of the employee’s annual salary.

No business wants that to happen. That is why there is a growing need to understand the correlation between people and culture to the whole recruiting process. The people are what makes the organization and they are also the ones that can make or break the company.

Tackling the Overall Aspect of the Hiring Process

First and foremost, every company has its own hiring process. It's a necessary element to have a system and structure in place for organizational success. It guarantees a consistent workflow that can help recruiters identify strong points and bottlenecks.

Depending on the size of your company, the nature of the industry, the number of employees, and more, the entire chain of operations varies. These includes:

1. Identifying hiring needs
2. Creating a justifiable recruitment strategy
3. Creating job posts
4. Integrating the use of recruitment software and tools
5. Optimizing where job ads are posted
6. Reviewing job applications
7. Conducting screenings and interviews
8. Assessing candidates and checking background profiles
9. Coordinating with hiring managers and management for hiring decisions
10. Onboarding accepted candidates
11. Studying reports and analytics to improve operations
12. … and many more!

At first glance, you might believe that this is a mere methodology that recruiters have to follow. However, it deals with heavy interactions with people both internally and externally, and this affects the way you hire.

Connecting Company Culture and Culture Fit to the Hiring Process

When you plan for a strategy, you discuss it with your teammates. When you recruit candidates, you talk to them and get to know them better. When you make a decision, you consult with superiors to see if they approve or not.

Whatever you do, you deal with people. As recruiters, they are in the center of it all. The way you interact with them and how they interact with you (it goes both ways) form the company culture.

How they treat each other says a lot about the values, goals, and practices of the organization, often instilled by the founders and the top management. As recruiters, you have much power over this.

You can maintain culture fit as you continually recruit or even bring in someone who can improve the company culture through their unique sense of individuality. 

Importance of Culture Fit

Culture fit is the social glue that holds everyone together. It measures the candidate’s suitability based on the company culture. See how the dots connect?

Recruiters also consider the likelihood of applicants to represent or at the very least be able to adapt to the core values and practices that make up the organization. This is one part of the hiring process that talent acquisition professionals also think about.

As tedious as recruiting for culture fit may be, it brings a powerful ROI that is undeniable. A study by Harvard Business Review revealed that an employee who fits well in the company has higher job satisfaction, better job performance, and is more likely to work longer years.

Improving the Hiring Process to Foster Culture Fit

Understand the delicate balance between culture fit and diversity

It might be confusing for somehow there can be diversity when you’re striving for culture fit. Yes. It’s true that you want people to have the same mindset and demeanor as much as possible. However, it doesn’t mean that it can’t come from people of different walks of life.

You can have a culture fit yet still promote a highly diverse workforce by considering the people you recruit. Find the delicate balance between knowing if an individual can match the company brand and if an individual can contribute to the current company culture.

When you determine this, you’ll see yourself working with all sorts of people harmoniously and happily.

Use recruitment software to optimize the recruiting process

You can fully utilize your recruiting software so you can recruit for culture fit better. Like with Manatal, this applicant tracking system (ATS) allows you to post on multiple channels (job boards, social media, and career pages) with just a few clicks.

Additionally, the recruiting tool has AI capabilities and automatically recommends top talents through candidate scoring. Based on job matches, it shows who’s the most qualified among the applicants so you don’t have to go through resumes one by one.

This convenience saves you valuable time and effort. This permits you to focus on screening candidates properly through interviews and assessments.

Assess culture fit carefully

Once you pick prospects from the roster of applicants, you must make it a point to assess culture fit carefully. Here are some questions that you can ask them:

• What type of culture do you see yourself working with?
• What company values do you deem important?
• Why do you want to work in this company?
• Describe our culture based on your observation. Does it align with your interests?
• Tell me about a time when you worked with/for an organization where you felt you were not a strong culture fit. Why was it a bad fit?

There are many more questions that you can ask them so you can get to know them better on a professional level. You may even do assessment examinations or personality tests so you have a concrete idea of whether or not they can adapt to your company culture.

Just remember that the people and the culture that they bring are as crucial as filling job vacancies. See to it that your hiring process involves understanding the correlation between these two and applying it to your operations to successfully achieve milestones after milestones.

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