Why Finding the Right Match for Your Organization Can Help Your Bottom Line  

Professional recruiters understand the value of a “cultural fit.” In talent acquisition, you hear it all the time. When hiring new talent, finding someone with the right skill set is good, but finding the right cultural fit means you’ve struck gold.

Just why is it so important? Zane Benefits published a blog article in February this year on the cost of employee turnover. (The article admits that the numbers vary in different studies when researching the price tag of replacing employees.) However, it does appear that the cost of turnover fluctuates based on an employee’s role and wage: a CAP study found that the amount to replace a high-turnover, low-paying job (defined as under $30k per year) is 16% of the position’s annual salary. For a mid-range job (defined as $30-$50k per year), the price is 20% of the position’s annual salary. How about for a highly-educated executive position? CAP says it costs up to 213% of the annual salary.

The reason for the multi-tiered cost: you must consider everything, such as advertising a position, interviewing, screening, on-boarding, lost productivity, training, and the impact on employee morale.  The latter can have more importance than at first glance: if one worker is dissatisfied and leaves, it may put doubt in the mind of others and make your employees think, “Should I look for another job too?” 

So…you spend money to increase customers and revenue, but how will you build your clientele without employees to help you do it? The answer is that you need to invest in your people. Your hiring and retention practices need to be a top priority!  After all, employees will stay at your organization when they are happy. Having the right skillset doesn’t mean that your employees will love their job, it only means that they are capable of doing the responsibilities of the role.  But employees will find actual happiness in the 9-5 when enveloped by the right culture.

Why Square Pegs in the Business World = Short-Term Retention

To break it down in simple terms, think of it like this: if you love classical music, how would you feel about spending the evening at a country and western bar? Or what if you were not much of a sports fanatic —  would you ask to go to a NFL game? Or, if you were ordering pizza and sharing it with a friend who hates fish, would you order anchovies as a topping?  The point is, people are adaptable, even flexible.  However, you can’t change someone at their core. As humans, we are who we are.

So, if you hire a quiet introvert, would it make sense to place this person at a call center or in a customer service gig? Do you think he or she would be happy, even if they had the skillset to perform the job? Or perhaps you interview an ambitious self-starter excited about working and looking to grow with an organization. If there is no opportunity in your organization for training, no room for advancement and/or no tasks associated with the role that could be made or deemed as challenging, why would an employee look forward to a long tenure at your company?

It doesn’t make sense, right? If you are going through the time, effort and expense to bring an addition or replacement to your team, then you want to make a decision that will be successful for both the organization and the candidate you are considering.

Why Company Culture Can Make or Break Your Long-Term Outlook

Ask yourself a very simple question what is your company culture? And, who would fit into it? Investopedia defines “corporate culture” as being comprised of “the beliefs and behaviors that determine how a company’s employees and management interact and handle outside business transactions.” Investopedia goes on to state, “A company’s culture will be reflected in its dress code, business hours, office set up, employee benefits, turnover, hiring decisions, treatment of clients, client satisfaction and every other aspect of operations.”

Any way you slice it, when it comes to the overall success of your organization, your culture matters: after you hire employees, retaining them means they need to fit into your company culture — otherwise, you may be setting yourself up for turnover, and unnecessary costs to your organization. Also, the way you portray your company culture to potential candidates is crucial. LinkedIn cites that, compared to last year, 59% more companies are investing in their employment brand.

Why this is important: you want candidates to have a clear understanding of your company culture before they apply for your job – in effect, you want candidates to “self-select.” If the culture is not a fit, it is better to let the candidate understand that before they apply. The opposite scenario: “vague” advertising about your job openings that may increase the number of applications you receive, but that will also give you more work, since you will spend unnecessary work hours eliminating candidates who are not a good fit.

So what you want is better quality candidates. Therefore, be sure to distinctly, and accurately, promote your company culture. Your candidates need to know what they can expect from you as an employer.

Improving and Popularizing Your Company Culture

What can you do right now to promote your employment brand and company culture in order to attract not only top talent, but the right talent? There are hundreds of ways to do. Here are three suggestions:

Encourage, Reward & Showcase Employee Efforts
To build a rapport and engage employees, it is not enough just to assign a bunch of tasks. Workers are happy when they feel a part of something and are contributing to the overall success of a department and organization. Therefore:

• Open up the gates of communication. Listen to suggestions.
• Allow for “experimenting” with new solutions.
• Let your employees run with new ideas and guide along the way instead of “dictating.”
• When your employees bring something new to the table, recognize or reward their achievements.

Most importantly for recruiting the right top talent, showcase what your people have accomplished to potential applicants so that they know there are real opportunities at your organization, should they be  hired.

Focus on a Positive Candidate Experience
The way you treat candidates during the application strongly correlates with the way a candidate views your employment brand. Want proof? Last year, Careerbuilder released a 2015 Candidate Behavior Report that contained data about the U.S. jobseeker. Here were some results:

• When asked if the application process would impact his or her decision to accept a position from a company, 68% of respondents either agreed “somewhat” or “strongly.”
• When asked if the companies that he or she applied to were responsive during the application process, 55% of respondents disagreed.
• On the other hand, if a person had a good experience with a company during the application process, 24% reported that they would tell more than five people about it, and 12% said they would tell more than ten people.

The moral in all of this: if you want to show candidates how great your company culture is during the application process, be responsive and focus on communication. The application process is a great time to kick off employee engagement for the person you do end up hiring!

Show & Tell with Video
It is one thing to tell people you are great, but to really build some buzz about your company culture, show and tell it with a short, dynamic video. Many companies like USG Corporation and GenPact already use this method to promote their employment brand and culture, which can also boost the SEO ranking of your job opportunities and provide a great way for candidates to find you on search engines like Google.

This electronic medium is also easy to view on mobile devices and social media.  In short, video is a perfect solution and a great investment for finding and attracting the right talent for your organization.