Determining cultural fit — rocket science or ESP?

Has another bad hire slipped through the holes in your interview process? Often the employee’s skills are solid but they just don’t “fit” in with the company culture.

The stilted dance of the entire recruitment process can leave hiring managers feeling dizzy. Follow these steps to ensure that you find partners who won’t step on your toes:

Know thyself
In order to identify people who “fit,” you must first understand your own culture. You have to be able to define your culture with words and recognize the values that shape the way work gets done. Give these values labels and begin to craft the message that defines how you want your organization to be known.

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Brand it
Once you have determined what the culture is, you must communicate the essence of it to the world. Your Web presence, the language in your job postings, the tone of your press releases, the art on your walls and the way you interact with customers should all project your cultural image in a clear, compelling manner.

Train interviewers
When it comes to interviewing, practice can make perfect. But some good training can also go a long way to ensuring your selection process is effective. Interviewers need to know the law but they also need to learn how to comfortably probe candidates for the information and insight needed to make good hires. Behavior-based questions, role-playing, auditions and other hands-on activities can give employers a clearer picture of the candidate’s inner workings than traditional interview formats. Be creative and let your corporate culture shine during interviews.

Personality assessments
I have used these types of tools with great success in the past. Make sure you use a properly validated candidate assessment tool to identify potential hires. This should only be one part of your screening process, and the results of any assessments fairly applied and measured. Have current employees take the assessment before using it with candidates. This will help you clearly understand what a “fit” looks like on paper.

Resist the urge to be swept off your feet by skills and experience. Design a recruitment strategy that allows you to uncover that “certain something extra” that tells you a candidate is a cultural match made in heaven.