The Benefits of Hiring Marketers for Culture Fit

Hiring for any position is an investment. Time and money are spent ensuring that you hire the best candidate, which is why hiring for culture fit is so important. 

Businesses are living organisms, shaped and influenced by the values and personalities of their employees. This is referred to as culture within the workplace and is a massive factor when it comes to recruiting the right people.

In this article, we’ll discuss the benefits of hiring marketers for culture fit. We will explain what culture fit is and how it can be beneficial to your hiring process. We also highlight ways that you can implement culture in your business and how you can hire for culture fit. 

Alongside insights into using culture fit as a hiring strategy, we provide details about how hiring for culture fit can impact diversity in your organisation and how you might want to consider ‘culture add’ as an alternative. 

What is Culture Fit?

In recruitment, ‘culture fit’ refers to the extent to which the core values and behaviours of an organisation align with those of its employees and potential hires. It’s about finding candidates who not only have relevant experience and qualifications, but will also thrive in your workplace and represent the values and mission of the business. 

In short, a good culture fit is someone who will be able to mesh with your current team and embody the principles of your business. Not only will they be excellent in their role, but they will help to foster a friendly and successful work environment. 

What are the Benefits of Hiring for Culture Fit

Hiring for culture fit is one of the best ways to ensure you get the right person for your business. Company culture is quickly becoming a draw for job seekers, with 35% of US workers stating culture as a reason for being attracted to particular roles. As such, hiring for culture has a variety of benefits for both your business and your current team. 

Reduced Time and Cost of the Hiring Process

The period of time between creating a new role and filling that position is called ‘time to fill’ and hiring for culture fit is one of the best ways to reduce it. The average time to fill a marketing position is 40 days and this can cost your business precious resources and put your team under more stress. 

Increased Employee Retention

Statistics show that 10.7% of people believe a negative work environment would make them leave their jobs and link this to company culture and values. Likewise, a 2018 study found that 27% of employees left their jobs voluntarily, which goes to show how important culture is when it comes to employee retention. 

A positive and impactful company culture can lead to higher employee retention. This can be achieved via support for professional development, greater benefits packages and championing a healthy work-life balance. 

Retention is important as the longer your employees stay, the stronger your workplace culture becomes. This in turn will improve your reputation within your industry and will attract high-value candidates to your company. Moreover, this can massively increase your employee retention rate.

Better Collaboration and Communication

With a strong company culture, all employees are on the same page and understand how to work in harmony. Hiring for a good culture fit will improve team bonding and collaboration, which will also increase productivity. Recent research shows that employees now spend 50% more time engaged in collaborative work, so making sure you have a team that works well together is imperative in the modern workplace. 

In order for colleagues to work well together they must be aligned in their thinking or share a common goal. Team dynamics play a key role in workplace collaboration, which is why hiring for culture fit is vital. 

Fosters a Positive Work Environment

It’s important for all businesses to pay attention to a candidate’s personality when assessing a candidate’s suitability. However, this is especially vital for small businesses where culture is much more tangible. By hiring candidates who would be a good culture fit, you can both preserve and enhance your company culture. 

Better Employee Engagement

Employees feel empowered when working in a company where they are comfortable, valued and accepted. This allows them to feel like they are contributing to something much bigger than standard work and will greatly improve productivity.

Employees who are aligned with the goals and beliefs of a company are more likely to be committed and go above and beyond their job description. Having a highly engaged team of employees can lead to a 202% increase in performance, which proves how important good company culture is. 

Creates a More Positive Brand Image

When your team feels valued and like part of something more they are more likely to speak in high regard about your business and the work you do. This will boost your brand image when employees are talking to clients, customers and prospective hires. 

How to Implement Culture in Your Business

Establishing a company culture is paramount to having a successful business. You want your employees to feel part of something bigger than themselves and be driven to succeed. This will not only improve their performance but also establish a productive and engaging work environment. 

If you’re wondering how you can implement culture in your organisation, we’ve provided some helpful steps and actions below.

Determine Your Culture Benchmark

If you are just starting a company and want to implement culture into your organisation, you need to first establish a benchmark. By building a culture from the ground up, you can ensure that it is in line with your goals and objectives as a business. First, consider the following questions. 

What are the goals of your business?

What are your core values? 

What personality traits would be beneficial for your team? 

These questions may seem daunting, but there are some easy steps you can take to find your culture benchmark. It is important to determine the core values that all members of your business need to share to achieve your goals. However, you should also consider that some of these values may hold more significance to different departments, so having a list of values that will apply across all teams is critical. 

Encourage Employee Involvement

A great way to establish a company culture is to engage your current employees to provide their insight. A simple way to do this is by sending out a survey to your team members regarding the company’s values and mission. This can help you define your company culture and turn the process into a collaborative effort. 

This also gives employees the opportunity to share their concerns or ideas about your company’s culture. When your team members feel heard and listened to this can greatly increase their productivity. Satisfied employees are 12% more productive, so by allowing your team to give their input you are more likely to have a strong company culture. 

Utilise Psychometric Testing

Alongside surveys, you can also utilise psychometric testing to get quantitative data regarding the dominant traits and personalities in your business. Psychometric testing involves the assessment of individuals to measure aspects such as personality, cognitive abilities and emotional intelligence. This is a crucial tool when establishing a company culture as it allows you to determine where the interests and preferences of your workforce overlap. 

This can also be used as part of the hiring process if you have the means. You will be able to get a much better measure of your candidates and if they would be a good culture fit. 

How to Start Hiring for Culture Fit

Once you have developed a good understanding of your company’s culture you can also use this in the hiring process to find a good match. Having culture fit as one of your markers for suitability allows you to filter down applicants much quicker and find the best person for your business. 

Make Your Company Culture Clear

Broadcast company values on your website, socials and within the job advertisement. It is important to have your culture clear across all channels as evidence shows that 68% of Millennials and 54% of Gen X specifically visit a company’s website to evaluate its brand. 

This is crucial as good company culture is becoming more and more appealing to job seekers. By having your values stated on your channels, you are able to funnel applicants to your company who will be more likely to mesh into your team successfully. 

Talk about Company Culture in the Interview

You can use interviews as a way to measure cultural fit. By bringing up culture in an interview, you give candidates the opportunity to showcase their understanding of your company’s culture. Company culture is appealing to potential hires and bringing it up in the interview is important, as 91% of recent hires say the interview process influences their opinion of a company. 

During the interview, you can ask thoughtful questions which will help you assess a candidate for cultural fit. These questions will focus less on their experience and work history, but can give you good insight into the workplace personality of the interviewee. Some great examples of interview questions that can help you establish whether a candidate is a good culture fit are:

How would your colleagues describe you? 

This will help you get a sense of the candidate as a person as well as an employee. It also allows them to showcase their embodied values which they feel are important within the workplace. 

What is it that motivates you?

This will give you an idea of a candidate’s ambitions and what drives them. This is a great way to measure how well they will fit into the company culture as if their motivations align with your business, they are more likely to be a good match. 

Do you prefer to work in a team or on your own?

This question can help you determine how flexible a prospective candidate is. This is also very important if you hold team morale in high regard, as you want to ensure that you hire someone who can complete tasks independently but also excels at teamwork. 

Continually Assess Cultural Fit 

Hiring for culture fit doesn’t end once you’ve found the right candidate, it is an ongoing process. Throughout your new hires onboarding period and training, you can assess how they are slotting into the company culture. Once they have settled into the employee life cycle you can gauge if they are a good culture fit. 

Culture Fit and Diversity

There has been some pushback recently regarding hiring for culture fit and the impact it can have on diversity in the workplace. Unconscious bias can lead to great candidates being passed over and can create a homogenous workplace. While having a team of like-minded individuals is great for cohesion, it can lead to groupthink and missed opportunities. Having a diverse workforce can improve innovation, communication and financial performance, so it’s not to be ignored.

Balance Between Culture Fit and Diversity

Hiring for culture fit has faced some criticisms in recent years due to the impact it can have on diversity within businesses. Hiring specifically for culture fit can result in well-qualified candidates being overlooked in favour of a candidate who aligns with the experiences and background of the individual hiring them. 

This is referred to as similarity bias, the preference for individuals who are similar to us. While this is not detrimental to business, it can create scenarios where discrimination is unintentionally occurring. 

A way to overcome this bias is to ensure that your values are backed by specific examples of behaviour that will benefit the company. For instance, considering ‘success’ to be the success of the organisation over individual achievements. 

Consider ‘Culture Add’

Culture add focuses on hiring candidates who bring something beyond the current style of your work culture and can improve it. Hiring for culture add involves seeking out candidates that bring something new rather than matching your current team perfectly. Transforming your team and company culture for the better, rather than keeping it the same. 

While it may appear contrary to hiring for culture fit, culture add is one of the best ways to strengthen your team. You can still use your culture as a rubric, but look for how candidates can take it further rather than just aligning with it. 

Summary

In conclusion, hiring marketers for culture fit offers a multitude of benefits that extend beyond the recruitment process. Understanding and implementing a strong company culture is crucial for attracting and retaining top talent. 

By hiring for culture fit, you are more likely to find candidates who have great experience but will also be an asset to your wider team. Companies that promote their culture are more likely to find suitable hires, as job seekers are eager to find positive work environments. 

A key takeaway is that while hiring for culture fit is integral to building a cohesive and successful team, it should be approached mindfully to avoid unintentional biases and promote a workplace that values diversity and continuous improvement.

Are you looking to build your marketing team? Find out more about our specialist marketing recruitment services or get in touch to speak to the team about how we can help.