Hiring Practices to Build Your Company Culture

Hiring Practices to Build Your Company Culture

A company’s culture is difficult to define in precise terms, but you know it when you see it. A positive culture is one in which employees communicate well, collaborate effectively, and feel engaged and supported.

Building a great company culture is critical to business success—not only because it makes employees happy but because it affects the bottom line by reducing turnover and improving productivity and efficiency.

Here are a few tips to help ensure that you hire cultural contributors—people who can help you continue building a positive culture at your organization.

Define your values

Just as businesses need to define their vision and goals to guide decision-making, it is equally important to define your values. At a workshop, retreat, or other session, discuss and decide on values like these:

• Treat customers and clients with respect
• Be open to change
• Listen to one another with respect
• Embrace diverse ideas
• Maintain a growth mindset in response to adversity
• Foster a positive work-life balance

At the same time, see if you can identify what might be lacking in your company culture. What could be better? What are employees struggling with in different departments? Identifying both the values you hold today and the direction you want to go next is helpful in developing job descriptions and interview questions that will help you hire the right employees.

Be dynamic

As the saying goes, the only constant is change. Recognize that to continue to grow and be successful, your business will need to keep innovating and adjusting to unpredictable events. Resisting change, including changes to your internal culture, is futile and can lead to uniformity, stagnation, and irrelevancy.

With that in mind, instead of asking whether a person will conform to today’s culture, ask what they can bring to keep your culture growing. What do they offer in terms of creativity, diverse ideas, and life experiences?

Hiring cultural contributors will help your organization be more vibrant, interesting, and lasting, so ask questions like these of job applicants:

• What is a life experience you’ve had that has affected your values?
• What qualities and experiences do you bring to the workplace that benefits your colleagues?
• What is your impression of our company’s culture and values, and how do you think we can continue to improve?

Get help with hiring

Insero Talent Services can work with you to reach your immediate and long-term hiring goals. Our recruiting services team can help you evaluate your hiring practices to build your company culture and hire culture contributors to take your organization to the next level.