Finding the Right Fit

Most people who do not work out in a new company don’t fail for lack of skills, but because the corporate culture they are working in is not a good match. They are a square peg in a round hole.

Finding and retaining people that fit your specific corporate culture is one of the key factors in having a successful company. Corporate culture is not easy to define. It is the atmosphere that works for your company. For example: it might be a small company with an informal working atmosphere, an informal dress code, an open door policy, titles are not that important, a matrix organization with open lines of communications, ad hoc meetings, flexible policies and procedures and people are expected to be self starters with not a whole lot of formal training.

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Very often the CEO sets the tone and one has to figure out what they have to do to become accepted. This is indicative of many high tech start-ups. People coming from a highly structured hierarchical setting such as an old line Fortune 500 corporation or the military might find adapting to this culture well out of their comfort zone. Likewise, the reverse situation would not work well either where a person who is free to explore to get things done is going beyond the normal protocols of a more formal culture and does not fit in.

The difficulty is in finding out before hand if a person would be a goof fit or not. One can use personality tests, reference checks and in house interviews to try to find this out, but there is no magic bullet. The best approach is to use all three and come up with a consensus, with multiple in depth interviews usually being the most reliable indicator. People are on their best interviewing behavior during the first interview or two. It is only through a well-designed multiple interviews process that you can get past the candidate’s programmed veneer to find out what the he or she is really about. You needn’t go the Google route with an extreme dozen or more interviews, but one or two doesn’t do the job.

When one calculates the cost of failure in hiring again and again for the same position, the value in doing the job right to begin with becomes clear.

We welcome your questions as to the challenges you face in order to grow.

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Michael Neidle

Michael Neidle
Michael Neidle is president and CEO of Optimal Management, an advisor to staffing firm owners and managers.

Michael Neidle

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2 Responses to “Finding the Right Fit”

  1. […] In the meantime check out this article we found to get some good insight on “Finding the Right Fit“. […]

  2. Finding the right fit for a job is difficult. The information on this blog has been put together to help you with your human resource and culture needs related to recruitment, hiring and retention of employees.

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