Hiring for culture fit–Summary-Part 7

Use your organization’s culture to manage retention. When you hire people who are a fit with the culture, there is a greater likelihood that they will want to stay.

First, you must define your Core Culture:

• The vital Purpose: the fundamental reason why the organization exists—Why is the work you do important?
• The distinctive and enduring Philosophy: the prime value or set of values that are the character and personality of the organization.
• The strategic Priorities: those few values that are essential to all areas of the organization and to the area where the applicant will work that will enable the organization to compete and thrive

Then, be sure your hiring—your recruitment materials, recruitment practices and interview process—is aligned with your Core Culture so that you are effectively screening for culture fit. It is essential to hire people who naturally value the Core Culture attributes that are central to the organization.

Think of culture as your distinctive advantage—as your unique fingerprint.

Herb Kelleher, founder of Southwest Airlines, put it this way, “Everything (in our strategy) our competitors could copy tomorrow. But they can’t copy the culture—and they know it.”

Think of your culture as the basis for your business success. Former IBM Chairman and CEO Louis Gerstner, Jr. stated in Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?, “Until I came to IBM, I probably would have told you that culture was just one among several important elements in any organization’s makeup and success — along with vision, strategy, marketing, financials, and the like. I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game; it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.”

To build your culture of distinction, you must define your Core Culture and then hire people who personally connect to the Core Culture, and want to live by it. Use your unique culture to manage retention and drive your organization’s success.

[This post concludes a seven-​​part discussion on Hiring for Culture Fit]

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Related Posts:

• Do you interview for culture fit? –Part 6
• Do your hiring practices screen for culture fit–Part 5
• Do your hiring practices screen for culture fit? — Part 4
• Screening for culture fit begins with defining core culture-​​​​Part 3
• Hiring applicants who are a fit–Part 2

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