Cultural Fit - The New Dynamic

Do you still believe that resumes are the Holy Grail when it comes to evaluating a candidate’s

profile? Well, you might still be stuck in the dark ages.

Gone are the days when a couple of pages of text where a candidate waxed eloquent about his skills were enough. And to give it some thought, how can you trust a resume for screening,

when it is nothing but the candidate’s own review of his career and experience? Shouldn’t there be more to it – something more concrete and tangible?

The new manpower dynamic includes focus on ensuring a cultural fit between the candidate

and the prospective organization. What is a cultural fit, you might ask? Cultural Fit is the probability of a candidate being able to adjust to and become comfortable with an organization’s work culture, vision, values and environment.

Why is it important? Well, there are documented examples of what has happened when candidates with impressive profiles and organizations with awesome track records have had fall outs just because they did not fit together culturally.

Take Rick’s example. An exceptionally talented designer, Rick was a maverick at his job. He liked being creative, innovative and breaking existing boundaries when it came to accomplishing the task at hand. This attitude towards his job helped him carve out a niche for himself with some path-breaking work. Along with a great skill-set came a thirst for freedom when it came to work culture and other aspects like not adhering to strict rules or guidelines. When Rick was recruited by ABC Design Inc, a large web design company, he was elated at getting to the next big pedestal in his career. But a month down the line, Rick started feeling stifled with the rules at his new job. Swiping in and out at defined times, restrictions of moving around in the work area, continuous micro-management of his tasks and other such reasons led to him not enjoying his job one bit. Ultimately, he had to part ways with ABC Design Inc!

Going beyond the ubiquitous resume, recruiters today should use the power of the web and social networking. Look at candidates’ social profiles to understand their attitude towards life in general – the friend circle they enjoy, their status updates, the kind of life they lead, the way they dress up. This information holds important clues to understand if a candidate will fit into an organization’s culture. An ambitious guy and a

rigid organization culture are the worst fit ever. Same goes for someone who likes freedom at work and a work culture that’s bound by strict rules and guidelines.

In our experience, organizations with an open and receptive work culture with defined focus on employee well-being and happiness tend to attract talent from larger companies and also boast of higher retention ratios. The conduct and thought process of the management of an organization percolates into the everyday work culture and affects the existing employee outlook, growth policies, gender diversity and many other factors. Even the age and background of the company management plays a pivotal role in deciding company culture – just take a look at how employees are supposed to dress and you should have a clue.

All these reasons necessitate the need to check for a culture fit between an organization and a

candidate. At SkillMirror, we have a pre-assessed pool of candidates whose backgrounds have been thoroughly researched to discern the kind of culture they can thrive in. When proposing a candidate for a position, a detailed report goes out along with the resume, so organizations have all the information they need to make a hiring decision. To know more about how SkillMirror can go a long way in reducing attrition rates and offer drops, log on to skillmirror.com today.