Explaining Corporate Culture to Candidates

“We love happy hour!” “Meetings, meetings, meetings!” “Everyone here is really nice.” “We have a shared vision that we strive to meet every day with our collective thinking and collaborative work.” “We get to work from home every Friday!” “Our results were the highest ever last year… and now, we need to beat them!”

When a job candidate asks your employees; “What is it like to work here?”, would you want them to answer with any of the above statements?

Companies and teams spend a lot of energy and resources building their corporate culture, which is an important tool to engage colleagues with and further enhances work productivity and brand loyalty. However, when recruiting and interviewing candidates, the cultural fit may be considered and discussed, but often the team that is interviewing has not even proactively discussed what their culture is nor what a cultural fit means to them.

Each of us knew a manager who determined if someone was a cultural fit by asking about their college sports teams and or local hang-out spots. If the person didn’t know the “right” answers, they weren’t someone that, that manager wanted to spend time with and therefore, wouldn’t get the job.

As you begin to fill out job descriptions and interview questions for your next round of hiring, it’s necessary and important to thoughtfully consider what intangibles make up your team’s culture.

• Discuss with your team what are some of the characteristics exhibited by a manager that they have worked with or wish that they had.

• Think about your management style and describe what brings forth best work and efforts.

• What are some of the expectations you will have of senior leaders to have success in the role?

• Do you believe it’s more important to work fast or get the job done right?

• Does your team encourage the use of the team’s energy and effort, the willingness each person has to be a part of a successful campaign or project?

Once you’ve captured who your team is, it will become infinitely easier to identify what characteristics new team members can bring to the table to round out your team.