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A business’s personality revolves around its company culture. All organisations have a company culture that reflects its values and priorities, whether you can define it and cultivate it, is a different matter altogether, but you do have one.

Cultural fit is really how well your employees integrate with the overall culture. Questions you may want to ask yourself may be; do their values align with those of the organisation? Are there any ethical tensions or unsuitable expectations? Does this person have qualities that would complement our culture?

Some questions you can ask at interview to establish cultural fit include;

“How would you describe your ideal work environment in which you’d be most productive and happy?”

Assessing whether the candidate would be a good fit is a prominent point to start with. You can determine the underlying meaning behind their answers to help with qualifying them overall.

“What would you like to accomplish here in your first six months?”

This question is a good indicator of a candidate’s drive and work ethic; it also shows if the candidate has a grasp of the your goals and understands the role they are applying for.

“Is there anything that would make you immediately leave your job?”

Although a question with negative connotations, it can extract strong signals about cultural fit. Put simply, do their values align with yours.

“Would you rather work alone or as part of a team? And why?”

This question helps to qualify the candidate’s fit within your organisation, but the extra sprinkle of knowledge is the “And why?” which will highlight their motivations. Do they display the flexibility and adaptability to integrate into your team?

“How would your previous manager describe you in the workplace?”

This will demonstrate that they are aware of how others perceive them in the workplace. It will draw out how open they are at being managed and how they exhibit their values.

“What are you passionate about outside of work?”

In this question, you are not asking the candidate if they will be a part of the office football or table tennis team, but instead allows them  to  showcase more of their personality and what they are all about when their workday is finished. This will allow them to move beyond their scripted answers and talk more candidly. As a Google interviewer noted, “it doesn’t matter what they’re passionate about, as long as they’re passionate about something.”

“Why do you want to work here?”

This is one of the classics. Although every applicant should have prepped a concrete answer for this question, the answer they give can still be telling. Did they accurately gauge your company’s culture? Do they see themselves as a desirable fit within it? Did their response describe values that you would want to have within your business? Remember, recruitment is a two-way process and it is important that a candidate feels that your company culture is a suitable fit for them, too, so make sure you are prepared to articulate this at any given chance.

If you have any questions or would like to know more about how to make sure you get the right cultural fit each time for your organisation, please click here. A member of our team will be more than happy to answer any queries you may have.