Why cultural fit matters: building strong, cohesive teams
25.02.25 Articles‘Cultural fit’ is a phrase you might have seen floating around the recruitment world in recent years, but what does it really mean? In this article, we strip back the jargon and get to grips with cultural fit in hiring (and why it’s so important for you and your company).
Put simply, assessing cultural fit considers how well a candidate’s beliefs, values, and behaviours align with your company’s culture. By putting cultural fit at the forefront of recruitment, the hiring pool is narrowed down to those who will mesh well with an existing team and uphold your organisation’s mission and values.
Culture-fit based hiring is all about ensuring harmony between employee and employer – but remember, this works both ways! Research has shown that Millennial and Gen Z candidates are becoming much more mindful about the employer they choose to work for, with a ‘good fit’ being a top concern in their job search.
What cultural fit isn’t
Cultural fit hiring does NOT mean recruiting a slew of identical mini-me’s. There’s plenty of research out there to show that homogeneous teams do not make for a first-rate workplace – diverse ones do. It’s vital not to get this wrong.
A great cultural fit is based on the fact that an employee who feels connected to a business’s values is much more likely to flourish, grow, and become an advocate for the organisation.
What are the benefits?
- Increased employee engagement & retention – Given that the average person spends over a third of their lifetime in the workplace (yes, really!), employee satisfaction is vital. People who are aligned with an organisation’s culture are much more likely to feel valued and connected with the company’s overarching mission. This sense of belonging and shared responsibility is necessary to encourage engagement, enhance productivity, and increase job satisfaction amongst employees.
- Stronger organisational identity – When everyone in a business is aligned with its culture, a strong company identity is formed. Employees who resonate with a company’s core values are much more likely to advocate for the organisation and contribute towards maintaining its unique character. Creating and promoting a cohesive company brand helps to attract desirable clients and presents a strong, unified message.
- Faster onboarding & integration – New hires who fit well within company culture will naturally adjust much more quickly within an unfamiliar environment. Prioritising a good fit leads to better employee relationships and a greater grasp of company expectations, streamlining the onboarding process and freeing up time.
- Improved team collaboration – A team that works together with the same core values typically understands each other’s communication styles much more efficiently than a team with disjointed work styles and priorities. Shared cultural values help teams navigate both professional and personal differences in the workplace, allowing for better interpersonal communication and the emergence of constructive solutions when challenges arise.
- Fosters creative innovation – While cultural fit emphasises alignment, it can also promote an environment where diverse perspectives are encouraged and championed. This creates room for innovation and creative growth, as employees who feel understood and valued feel much more comfortable sharing potentially pioneering ideas.
What are the drawbacks?
If that wasn’t enough to convince you, perhaps we should consider the negative impact of ignoring cultural fit in hiring. A lack of cohesion in your workplace will ultimately lead to three major drawbacks:
- An unhappy workforce – In a team lacking cultural cohesion, communication between employees breaks down easily, leading to friction and an increased risk of burnout. This will naturally result in a high turnover rate, incurring expensive recruitment and training costs that your business will be forced to absorb.
- Damaged customer experience – A lack of shared company culture can ultimately harm those carefully cultivated client relationships vital to organisational success. If employees are ill-suited, they are unlikely to deliver the consistent brand experience your customers have come to expect, both directly harming customer service, and tarnishing a company’s identity.
- Lack of engagement – If employees find themselves in an environment alien to their own work style and values, productivity levels will plummet. Without an overarching alignment with company culture, it’s almost impossible to motivate employees to get stuck in and invest in achieving company goals they feel no genuine connection with.
So, what can you do?
Well, we like to think we’re pretty good at this kind of stuff.
As part of our hiring process, we prioritise in-depth discussions with key members of each and every member of the hiring team to understand a company’s values and mission beyond the ‘job’. We then go one step further, asking these key stakeholders to complete an assessment to create an ideal personality profile for their preferred candidate.
By championing the importance of cultural cohesion, we can create a benchmark for the ideal candidate allowing us to find the best match, in both technical ability and cultural fit. What’s more, we really delve deep into candidates’ individual motivations and personal goals during our interviewing process, so we can figure out what really makes them tick.
Whether you choose to work with us or not, putting cultural fit at the forefront of your hiring mission is the key to building a resilient, innovative, and cohesive team. By paying close attention to who you hire and why, you can take the headache out of pesky business targets and progression goals – the legwork has already been done for you.
Ready to take your hiring to the next level? Get in touch at apply@leadcandidate.com