Like people, businesses also have a personality. This is referred to as business culture. Business leaders and HR managers alike are increasingly realising the need to hire people who possess the personalities and attributes that match the values, beliefs, and attitudes the organization holds. This post explores what cultural fit means exactly and the reason it’s necessary for business success.
What Exactly is Cultural Fit?
Cultural fit refers to matching employees with a suitable business culture. Business culture encompasses the values and beliefs that the company founders have via the joint force of their staff, the relations of the management team and the staff, along with the workplace environment.
And just as different individuals have different personalities, organisational cultures also vary from business to business. This is why some employees will effortlessly fit into some working environments or set business values, and struggle in others.
It’s imperative to know that hiring culturally fit individuals doesn’t exactly mean hiring identical people. In fact, cultural fitness should never be used to eliminate or diminish diversity. Good company cultures should ideally reproduce a diverse workforce.
The culture of a company should be reflected by the whole workforce. If an organisation provides a super collaborative approach to working, then employees who tend to perform better on their own may not be a great fit. As such, to augment the culture of an organisation, it’s critical to avoid creating teams where the individuals think, look, and behave the same.
Good cultural fit is largely founded on the notion that employees who are personally connected to the values and beliefs of the business and match its unique nuances are generally more likely to prosper.
Why is Cultural Fit Important?
In the world of business, there exists some confusion around hiring for culture fit. Nonetheless, an overwhelming majority of HR managers agree it’s important to hire based on cultural fit. Here are 5 key reasons why:
Employee retention
Since people spend nearly a third of their lifetime at work, it’s important for employees to feel happy and connected in their workplace. Cultural fit is one of the main contributors to employee retention. People whose personalities don’t match well with the beliefs and values of the company don’t feel satisfied with their jobs, which could potentially cause a toxic working environment. As such, they are more likely to leave.
If you are an employer looking to build your marketing and digital team, or perhaps you are just hiring your first marketer, a marketing recruitment agency London can help. They offer a range of services, from freelance to permanent placements and executive search.
Employee engagement
Where the personal beliefs and values of individual employees match those of the business they’re working for, there’s a higher chance they will stay loyal and devoted to the company, put in more effort, and even go out of their way to achieve results. People in such jobs will also feel more confident and competent. This employee engagement approach is vital for business success.
Boosts employee performance and productivity
In businesses where employees believe in the overall goals and values of the organisation and have a strong culture, there’s higher productivity and performance overall.
Cohesion
A team that always works together governed by identical core values and beliefs usually function better, and are even more aligned with the same goals, in comparison to teams that have disjointed priorities. Professional and individual differences are much easier to resolve in teams that are committed to the same goals or values.
Communication
Businesses with strong cultures tend to be more interested in cooperative work as well as open communication. Since their values are well aligned, the employees tend to find it a lot easier to communicate with each other.
Business culture is essential for success. It’s vital when it comes to enhancing employee performance, engagement, and productivity. Employees that are able to relate more with the business generally experience superior work satisfaction, have better performance, are happier, have greater commitment and are more likely to stick with the organisation. This is the reason culture fit is vital.