This month’s Webinar is about Assessing cultural fit within an organisation, but what is “cultural fit”?
We spend a lot of our waking lives with the people we work with, and if personalities clash that can become an issue, and, in extreme cases, exceedingly destructive to a company.
What cultures and personalities do you need in your business?
When we think of “company culture” we often think of teamwork, good collegial relationships etc. And, as humans, we choose to spend time with people who have a similar mindset to us (our friends). However, in a business you often need people to work together who wouldn’t actually choose to socialise with outside work. For example, I hate paperwork and admin, and pedantic i-dotters/t-crossers can drive me rather batty, however, I need those people in my business to keep me on track and organised. So, you need to be very wary of recruiting a lot of people who are too similar i.e. same strengths, but also the same weaknesses.
So, step 1 is to define what you actually need in terms of not only the skill set but also personality traits. Then used Competency Based Interviewing to identify these traits during the interview process.
Acknowledge and respect the differences
Google is a company with a reputation for being a “Young Hip, Happening culture” (and yes I am probably showing my age even using that phrase ) but they will also have the straight-laced, serious people to help balance that creativity out.
The key to how to make this work is to accept that (for example) not everyone will want to go out for Friday night drinks, not everyone will be “best mates” but as long as they get on together amicably and professionally that is actually OK.
So, Step 2 – remember that people are there to do a job, if they have a laugh and joke along the way, sweet (it makes the day go faster), and if they are just head down, bum up, actually that is fantastic for you as the business owner
The gap is too vast
Sometimes the personality difference is too much and causes problems. Often, in these situations, both parties will have an equally valid stance – I don’t like X because they always nag me to get on with work v’s I don’t like Y because they are always mucking around at work.
So, you actually need to get to the bottom of what is actually being done “wrong”. X may be valid to request work to be done but may be coming across badly in the way they make their complaints. And equally, Y may not be working as hard as they should, so they do need to be pulled up on that.
Once we start to identify solvable issues (e.g. style coaching for X and productivity coaching for Y) we can start to address the clash. The key is to actually understand the root cause and address that.
Free Webinar
Join me for this month’s Webinar on Assessing Cultural Fit on Friday 30th at 10am.
And, for the rest of the year we still have:
HR is easy
With the right support, HR issues needn’t give you sleepless nights, so do give me a call on 021 741 544 if you have any issues you want to talk over
Cheers
Lisa Mackay
Managing Director
021 741 544