Former CEO of Porsche, Peter Schutz, stands by the statement that in order to succeed a company must “hire character” and “train skill.” However, for companies like Google or Nike, who are currently attaining exemplary corporate success, the story does not end with hiring character and training skill. In fact, the defining strategy that these companies employ lies in assessing and on-boarding people to ensure strong organizational culture fit!
Hiring is the most important decision for your business. (Or, at least the most important decision within your direct control). It’s also one of the most integral pieces of a strong corporate culture.
The fewer people you hire, the more important the decision to get each hire right becomes and cultural competence is a key component.
You need not only to ensure that the individual you bring onto your team will be excellent at his job, but also that they will be happy with both your organization and their position. Why?Because happy brains are on average 31% more productive, and according to recent empirical research by the iOpener Institute (n=9,000 employees from around the world), in contrast to subjects who report being unhappy at work, those who feel happiest at work:
- Stay twice as long in their positions
- Spend double their time focused on what they are paid to do
- Use ten times less sick days
- Believe that they are achieving their potential twice as much
Organizational Culture Fit Assessment
Just as there are varying styles of successful people and leaders, there are many examples of effective organizational culture and strategy. The trick lies in proper cultural fit assessment. Knowing your organization’s cultural style is thus an essential ingredient in hiring people who can be both happy and exceptional within your organization.
Use our 3-step process for Cultural Fit Assessment in Hiring to improve the ability to hire the right people and put them in the best place in your organization.
Lisa Jackson is a corporate culture expert and co-author of 2 books including the brand new “Culture Builder Toolkit: A Step-by-Step Guide for Assessing and Changing Corporate Culture.” She specializes in methods to assess corporate culture, train leaders to align their corporate culture to strategy, and succeed at innovation, change and transformation.
You can visit her on the web at www.CorporateCulturePros.com or follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/corporatecultur