Hiring for new permanent positions is incredibly difficult, and there’s a reason why open roles often take months to fill. As a hiring manager, you are already grappling with baseline qualifications, prior experience, and potential to perform well in this role. But then it gets even more complicated – you must determine whether or not a candidate’s personality is a good fit for your company culture.
And yes, a good cultural fit is incredibly important for the health of your company. MIT Sloan released data showing that cultural misalignment is 10.4 times more likely to drive employees away than compensation.
So how to identify good cultural fits for your company? This blog will shed some light on the subject.
Do You Understand Your Own Team’s Culture and Personality?
Before you can assess whether a candidate is the right fit for your team, you must have a deep understanding of your own company’s culture and personality traits. What are your team’s norms, personality traits and behaviors? What makes your company tick?
Consider gathering feedback from various team members to pinpoint the qualities that contribute to someone’s success in your environment. Tools like the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) can provide a structured way to evaluate your current culture by examining four major areas: Clan, Adhocracy, Market, and Hierarchy, but nothing can beat personal interactions between management and team members.
Take some time to understand your own company before you start trying to identify good cultural traits in candidates.
Determining What Personality is a Good Fit For Your Team
Once you have a clear understanding of your team’s culture, you can define the personality traits that are likely to contribute to a harmonious and effective team environment. If you need another emotionally intelligent and supportive person to complement your team, start with that. Or if you feel like your team lacks creativity, find someone with more mental openness and curiosity. Again, unless you know the people in your company and on your team, you won’t be able to make an effective judgment call.
Before you make a new hire, consider investing in a corporate retreat, team building strategy, or other activities. It will give you the chance to get to know your team members. Whether you are looking for a corporate retreat in the California Bay Area or a forum retreat in NYC, you have so many options to choose from.
How To Assess Whether or Not a Candidate is a Good Fit
Behavioral interview questions are particularly effective; they allow candidates to demonstrate how they have handled situations in the past that are likely to arise in your team’s environment. Questions should be tailored to reveal essential traits and how they’ve applied them in real-world scenarios.
Another approach is situational judgment tests (SJTs), which present candidates with hypothetical, job-related situations, where their responses can reveal much about their likely behavior and cultural fit.
Furthermore, incorporating a ‘day in the life’ scenario where candidates spend a day or part of a day working with the team can provide invaluable insights into how well they integrate and interact with potential colleagues.
What Non-Invasive Personality Testing Tools Can Help You
Personality testing can offer additional insights into a candidate’s suitability. It’s important to choose tests that are non-invasive and professionally validated. Some of the most respected tools include:
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
This tool helps identify candidate personality types based on how they perceive the world and make decisions.
Predictive Index (PI)
PI provides data-driven insights into candidates’ behavioral drives and needs, which can predict their workplace behavior.
DiSC Profile
This test focuses on four different behavioral traits: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness, helping understand how a candidate might fit into a team dynamic.
16Personalities
Based on the Myers-Briggs system, it offers insights into how people interact with their environment, process information, and make decisions.
These tools should be used as part of a broader assessment strategy, including interviews, references, and practical evaluations.
Never Be in a Hurry: Get To Know People
Finding the right personality fit does not guarantee that every hire will be perfect, but it significantly enhances the likelihood of a successful integration into your team. By taking the time to learn your team’s culture, defining what makes a good fit, effectively assessing candidates, and utilizing reliable personality testing tools, you can make more informed hiring decisions that contribute to a high performing team. Remember, the goal is to build a team that not only works well together but also feels right together, fostering a productive and positive work environment.
