Culture Fit

by Sue V. Barrett

What is Culture Fit? Well the first place you are likely to hear about Culture Fit is when you are recruiting for new staff or being recruited yourself. For instance, Culture Fit Interviews differ from Behavioural Interviews, in that the Behavioural Interview attempts to find out about the candidate's behaviour, skills, knowledge and experience. Culture Fit Interviews generally do not try to determine the individual's capability, but rather considers the candidate's 'cultural fit' with the organisation, their values and motivators.

Values, motives, codes of conduct and organisational charters are now on the main agenda. More and more managers, sales people and the broader workforce are making value judgments and career choices based more heavily on values, ethics and work practices, rather than just the roles themselves. The phrase 'you hire on skill and fire on fit' has never been truer, however it's not just the employer firing on 'fit'. Employees and customers are doing the same. If there is misalignment around core values and codes of conduct, employees and customers are just as likely to fire the organisation and go elsewhere for a better 'fit'. (read more… and show rest of article on link with all below – bio and picture need to be included)

Culture Fit is usually considered as an internal organisational matter, however I propose that Culture Fit has now migrated to the main world stage with our organisational and corporate values and conduct being scruitinised on every level by our customers, constituents, members, suppliers, employees and communities. It is now a brand, sales and customer matter with ethical and moral consequences. Many of us are asking:

These are just some of the questions that are likely to knock loudly on our collective doors.

Why? Because organisations everywhere are undergoing breathtaking changes! Their products are changing. Their markets are changing. Their management philosophies are changing. Their values are changing. Their focus is changing. And most importantly, their customers' views on what is 'true value' are changing.

Now, more than ever before the accepted ways of doing business are shifting. Old institutions are crashing and dying. Trusted names of yesterday will not live to see the future. Many have failed to keep pace with changing consumer and community demands, values and needs. Many business CEOs and their management teams have missed the opportunity and pressing need to account for a quadruple bottom line:

One of my trusted mentors, Neville Christie, says that in the 21st Century, the role of the CEO is a dual purpose role:

There is recognition that a clear promise, code of conduct or charter, and accompanying message to markets and the broader community is critical for organizations of all persuasions, and only the leaders and their employees can bring this to life. Savvy leaders and organisations will not just 'talk the talk'; they will 'walk the talk' and show the way forward.

In the words of one Senior Leader, "Don't ask me what I value and stand for; ask the people who work for me. They'll tell you what I really stand for and then you'll know if I am true to my word." In fact, we can take this one step further. In this increasingly transparent world, we can witness for ourselves what the leaders of businesses, political parties, communities, and other organizations stand for - plain and simple.

Making your philosophy, values, team charter and steps for action crystal clear for everyone to witness will be key when recruiting, training, managing, and leading teams and when we engage with our customers and communities. Being transparent, honest and engaging in real conversations will need to be top of mind. Make no bones about it, whether you know it or not and whether you like it or not, you and your organisation are on show like never before and employees, customers and communities alike are asking these questions on a daily basis. They are checking for 'culture fit'.

Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Sue_V_Barrett

Sue BarrettSue Barrett endorses the propositions that 'everybody lives by selling something' and people buy from people they trust.  Sue is founder and managing director of BARRETT, and specialises in 21st century sales training, sales coaching, sales leadership, sales capability, and sales culture transformation. Sue is one of the few prominent female voices commenting on sales today. You don't have to be a sales person to benefit from her knowledge and insight. If you have an idea, capability, product, service or opportunity that you want to take to market then Sue says you need to be able to sell - ethically, honourably, and effectively.  Sue practices as a coach, advisor, speaker, facilitator, consultant and writer and works across all market segments with her skilful team at BARRETT.  Sue and her team take the guess work out of selling and help people from many different careers become aware of their sales capabilities and enable them to take the steps to becoming effective, and productive when it comes to selling, sales coaching or sales leadership. For more information visit www.barrett.com.au

 

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Cultural fit is a relatively new buzzword in recruitment. Bruce Watt examines why cultural fit is important and looks at how hiring managers can put it into practice.
We've all been there. After an extensive and thorough search for a line manager, one candidate stands out. They have the right experience, solid qualifications, a relevant work history and have performed impressively during the interview process. They said the right things, put forward some great ideas and generally presented very well. You hire them.
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Culture Fit
by Sue V. Barrett

What is Culture Fit? Well the first place you are likely to hear about Culture Fit is when you are recruiting for new staff or being recruited yourself. For instance, Culture Fit Interviews differ from Behavioural Interviews, in that the Behavioural Interview attempts to find out about the candidate's behaviour, skills, knowledge and experience. Culture Fit Interviews generally do not try to determine the individual's capability, but rather considers the candidate's 'cultural fit' with the organisation, their values and motivators.
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The Importance of Culture Fit
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It's often said that people are hired for skills but fired for "fit."  But what is fit, and how can you determine it before making a hire? While definitions abound, I think fit is partly about personal values and partly about "how we like to do things around here." While small variations in fit are usually tolerated, big variations, over time, become irritations to everyone on the team.   Eventually the sum of those irritations begins to gum up the works, draining everyone's energy and lowering team productivity.  The entire team is relieved and re-energized when the misfit finally leaves.   If you are the misfit – as I have been – it's torture to be in an organization that is not in keeping with your personal values. So how do you avoid hiring a mis-fit?
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Yep…its true…..but most people don't realize it.
Many in the IT world love to get asked to be a part of a technology selection project. These types of projects usually provide a learning opportunity for everyone on the team and an chance to really help drive the platforms used within the enterprise.
The basic question at hand for most technology selection projects really comes down to "'what do we need and how much is it?"
With that question in mind, most IT professionals approach technology selection with the following three questions in mind:

These three questions definitely cover a great deal of requirements….but one major area is missing.  I'd add the following:

Does the technology fit the culture?
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I'm all for backing up claims with evidence. I mean I am working on my doctorate you know…nothing like a doctorate program to teach you how to base theories on evidence right?

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Organizational alignment is the practice of aligning an organization's strategy and culture. In other words, organizational alignment helps to ensure that 'what gets done' is in line with 'how things get done' and vice versa. For a more detailed description of organizational alignment, take a look at the article on Organizational Alignment on Vanguard Consulting's website.

As mentioned, Organizational Alignment is the act (or art?) of aligning strategy and culture. The field of strategic planning and organizational strategy is a very well researched and fairly well covered in academia (and blogosphere) so I won't go into the 'strategy' aspect but I will cover the 'culture' side here. What does organizational alignment have to do with project success? In my opinion, everything.
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More Industry Whitepapers

Organizational Culture and Employee Retention, Sheridan, 1992 PDF Link Icon
Organizational Culture and Turnover, Vandenberghe, 1999 PDF Link Icon
Using Organizational Fit to Select Employees in High-Turnover Jobs, McCulloch, 2007 PDF Link Icon

 

Press Releases

CultureFit Technology Staffing Becomes Newest Member of the American Staffing Association, 2010 PDF Link Icon
CultureFit Technology Staffing has joined the American Staffing Association, the trade organization that
represents the $61 billion U.S. staffing industry. Two million Americans go to work for U.S. staffing
companies every business day.
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