How to Communicate Culture to Your Candidates

You’ve defined your open position, created a position profile, screened your candidates, and at last, you are at the interview stage of your hiring process. How will you make sure your candidate is not only qualified but also a culture fit?

What Does Culture-Fit Really Mean?

Culture fit is the likelihood that a candidate interviewing for your open position will align with and truly believe in your company’s core values. 

Your company has a culture, whether you have defined it or not. Company culture is how people feel about the work they do, the leadership practices and beliefs, and how employees treat each other. It’s based on your core values.

If you hire someone who doesn’t fit in with your culture, it can derail morale, productivity, efficiency and ultimately your bottom line.

How to Communicate Culture

Here are a few ways we suggest you communicate your culture to your candidates during their interview.

Write Interview questions based on your core values 

To determine if a candidate is a culture fit, frame your question around your core values. For each core value, ask one close-ended question by an open-ended question.

For example, if one of your core values is honesty, first ask the candidate the close-ended question, “Do you consider yourself to be honest?”

The candidate will hopefully answer “yes.” And you will ask an open ended question, “Tell me about a time in your last job when you demonstrated that you were honest.”

Their answer will give you an indication if they truly fit your culture.

Ask your candidate about their ideal culture.

Have a conversation about company culture. Ask them to articulate the type of culture they would thrive in, and the type of culture that would not be a fit for them.  Are they describing your culture? Or something close?

Explain your company culture and what it means to the people who work there.

Share your company’s culture and core values. Explain why it’s important to you. This is a time where you can really sell your company. 

Talk about team bonding activities, meeting cadences and frequency, how you approach remote work or flexible schedules, and how you handle issues and conflicts. Your candidate might see themselves in the picture you are painting. Or maybe they will decide your company is not for them. It that’s the case, now is the time to find out.

Walk the Walk.

Your candidates will learn a lot about your company’s culture during the hiring process. From the initial screening to the final offer and everything in between, you are showcasing your company’s culture to your candidates. 

If you interview them on-site, they will gain an understanding of the atmosphere and work environment. Pay attention to what you say, how you say it, and how you dress. Be sure that you and everyone on your team are conducting yourselves according to your company’s culture.

Need more tips on communicating your company’s culture to your candidates? Contact us. We can help.