Recruitment and Selection: why select a team according to the organizational culture?

Academic background, professional experience, skills and competencies appropriate to the position, additional knowledge — these are some of the requirements analyzed and valued in a recruitment and selection process. However, they might not be enough to hire the right candidate for the organization.

It is possible that many entrepreneurs or HR directors have already gone through the following situation: faced with the need to hire an employee, they carefully analyzed the resume, conducted the necessary interviews and identified an apparently perfect candidate for the position.

However, day-to-day life showed that reality did not meet expectations. The employee did not seem to “fit” into the structure of the company. It could be that he was a very centralized manager or too daring for the company’s parameters, or many other differences that the routine reveals.

In the end, that hiring, which looked so promising, did not work out. There was unnecessary attrition while the employee remained with the company, and everyone saw that his dismissal was inevitable.

Soon, he looked for an opportunity at another company, and the entrepreneur was unable to identify which was the biggest loss: staying with an employee who did not fit into the company or starting a whole new hiring process, with the costs that the situation imposes and the delays in the flow of productivity.

Can you identify yourself in this situation? Maybe you’ve been the contractor or contractor pictured at some point in your career. What was the mistake in this recruitment and selection process? Probably, the lack of compatibility between the candidate’s profile and the organizational culture.

But how can this factor influence the quality of a contract? Want to find out? Continue reading and find out why organizational culture is essential when hiring the best employees .

What is the importance of organizational culture?

Every company has a typical organizational structure and culture, either implicit or explicit. These values ​​permeate the attitudes and decisions of everyone in the company and form a kind of code of action.

These cultural aspects can refer both to the structure — management models, possibility of hierarchical mobility, focus on results, processes or people, appreciation of meritocracy — and to the simplest behaviors of the day.

For the most part, organizational culture should not be labeled good or bad. There are different models that can be stimulating for people with a certain profile or completely unsustainable for others.

An innovative employee, focused on results and with great potential to transform the environment, may find it terrible to work in a company with a more “plastered” structure.

He may feel uncomfortable when he realizes that opportunities are offered to the oldest employees in the house, even if their results are not the best and they are not looking for innovation or high performance.

However, for those who like comfortable or stable situations, are reliable but don’t like to deal with big challenges, this is the perfect work situation!

The compatibility between the employee’s profile and the organizational culture was called “cultural fit”. The process happens when the values ​​of the company and the person are aligned, and this adaptation brings several benefits to the company. Want to know what they are? Keep following the reading!

What are the advantages of a team with cultural fit?

By managing to form a team that has values ​​compatible with those of the organization, the company finds several advantages. Meet some of them:

• good employee performance;
• employee satisfaction and happiness, who feel fully “fitted” in their work environment;
• reduction of problems with sick leave and absenteeism, as carrying out assignments under these conditions generates less stress;
• formation of high performance teams;
• the fact that employees share many values ​​and goals creates a deeper level of collaboration, resulting in synergy;
• reduction of turnover rates, which directly interferes with the reduction of hiring costs and increased productivity.

We could also cite other benefits, but these are more than enough for us to understand the importance of selecting candidates compatible with the organizational culture.

How to use culture for recruitment and selection?

But how to get this result? For this, the HR sector cannot focus the selection processes only on requirements such as knowledge and skills.

It is important to bet on actions that help identify the behavioral profile in relation to the organizational culture. Shall we figure out how to do this?

1. Deeply understand the company culture

As we have already mentioned, organizational culture is not always explicit. Without knowing her, it is very difficult to identify people with the right profile to adjust to her.

Honestly identify the management model, policies to encourage learning and talent appreciation, the focus on innovation and the organizational climate, among other factors.

2. Define the profile of the professional you want to hire

It is important to determine the training, knowledge and skills that the function requires. However, these basic requirements will only be the initial filter for the recruitment and selection process. They will be used for sorting resumes.

3. Define the behavioral profile of candidates

This is where the process has a significant differential. As important as what the candidate knows how to do is what he is. Therefore, based on the organizational culture, establish a behavioral profile.

Be honest and conscientious at this stage. If the company’s structure is rigid and traditional, don’t look for an innovative and challenging profile of Generation Y.

Unless you really want to transform the organization and are willing to pay the price for change, hiring would be tragic for both parties.

4. Attract the desired profile

Write a job description that captures exactly what you want: the perfect person for your company. Include behavior in the work environment, how you expect him to solve problems, the need for teamwork.

Also make a good advertisement for your company: show what it has to offer and the points that are attractive to this profile. It could be the organizational climate, opportunities for learning and career growth. Hook your ideal candidate!

5. Compare profiles

After reviewing resumes, the company will likely have a certain amount of candidates with very similar requirements. Select them for the next step, focused on identifying the behavioral profile.

Use the necessary techniques to identify the expected characteristics for each job. If you find a candidate with the perfect behavioral profile, but with a little less knowledge or experience, bet on this one!

After all, knowledge can be acquired with continuing education. Skills are developed through experience — these are gaps that can be filled with training and development . But keep in mind that the company will not be able to change a collaborator’s profile.

Finally, finding culturally fit candidates should be a priority in the recruitment and selection process. This can start a long successful trajectory for the employee and excellent results for the organization.