How to determine if a remote employee is a good culture fit?
In the age of remote working, companies have gained access to a massive pool of talent that can be hired from anywhere in the world. The increasing number of people to recruit from is excellent for any company that needs more skilled workers. However, it also presents a whole other level of challenges when it comes to the hiring process.
The most significant problem is if these new hires are capable of fitting into your organization's culture. It can be challenging for any company to analyze a company's fit when everyone is separated. With everyone working from a distance, companies must find candidates that can fit into your existing culture.
There are plenty of things a manager needs to screen for when it comes to hiring a new team member. However, besides ensuring they have the required skills and experience to complete the job at the level expected of them. They want to make sure that new hires can fit into the company’s culture and that they’ll get along with the team as well.
However, how can managers ensure that these new hires are a good culture fit for the company when they work from a whole other geological location? This post will help you understand how to determine if a remote employee is a good culture fit.
What is Culture fit?
Culture fit concerns the capability of an employee to align with the values, beliefs, and work ethics of your company. In essence, will the way the new employee works fit into the organization work as a whole. The idea behind culture fit has nothing to do with an individual's personality. Instead, it is about how well an employee fits in with the working environment of the company and the remote team they are potentially joining.
Why is it important?
Your company’s culture is a system made up of ethics, values, and beliefs that are shared by everyone in your organization. The organization's culture is reflected by how management and employees interact with each other, how the team functions, and much more. Since every company has its own culture, a new remote employee with similar ethics and values shall have no issue adjusting to the new culture. A new hire that clicks well with the working style of your current team can also lead to significant results.
ThriveMap released research in 2018 that resulted in 96% of HR leaders agreeing that hiring for culture fit is essential. Hiring remote employees who can fit in your culture leads to an enhanced job retention rate. When you hire qualified employees who fit into the organization's culture, you are hiring for the long run.
Culture fit also holds a significant role for remote employee's job satisfaction since it grants them a sense of belonging. It also assists remote employees with developing better relationships with colleagues. If any of the workers feel that the company’s culture differs from their beliefs, performance and productivity will decline significantly.
Now that we have made that clear, let’s go over what you can do to ensure your future remote employees fit in your company's culture.
Be aware of your company culture.
Before you can start evaluating potential employees for your company’s culture, you need to understand the details of your organization's culture. One way to do this is by taking the time to consider what type of people usually succeed in your organization. Who are the ones that are performing the best out of everyone on the team? Why are they capable of doing so well compared to others in the company?
Furthermore, you need to also take the time to consider your organization's mission statement and the value under which the company operates.
Communication and involving the team
During the hiring process, it is crucial to communicate with the potential remote employee. It allows you to learn about the person based on their mannerism, posture, way of speaking, and much more. Now, first impressions should never be the ultimate qualification during the process of hiring employees. Although if you know your remote team well enough, you can tell what type of people they can get along with.
When you hire someone in person, assessing their behaviors and manner is relatively easy. But if you are hiring a potential employee remotely, it's going to take extra effort on your part. If you are hiring remotely, the best way to go about it is through video interviews. While you will not be granted the entire scope of your candidate, at least you will have a decent conversation with them and ask them questions in real-time.
To further ensure this process goes smoothly, consider having your team onboard for the recruitment process. You could adopt a collaborative hiring approach at every step, such as defining the roles, resume screening, interviewing, and so forth. Doing so offers you a variety of perspectives and opinions to hire more accurately and objectively. It also permits you to showcase the organization's culture to potential candidates.
Check if they are passionate about your industry.
Hiring random people off the net could be disastrous in the long run, especially if you are a remote team looking to bolster your workforce. The candidate should not be someone who is attempting to fatten their resume. Regardless of how you managed to word the job requirements in your online posting, applicants who aren’t fit for the job will still attempt to apply.
These types of individuals need to be observed. They can usually be spotted by taking similar job titles in several different industries. While they may be experienced at particular skills such as handling teams, if you value your organization's culture, you want remote employees who will remain a part of your team.
Furthermore, a person's passion can be faked during the interview process. However, authentic passion is something that cannot be falsified by anyone out there, not even by the most skilled actors around. When you are interviewing your candidates, ask them to tell you stories about their work history.
Ask them about some of the most challenging situations they were involved in during their previous work experiences. Throughout the interview, make sure to pay close attention to them as they tell you about this time. That allows you to learn enough about how they operate and if they are authentic about wanting to work with your organization.
Use Skill tests
To shorten the list of candidates you have on your list, consider implementing a skill-based hiring process. With skill-based hiring, you define the goals that the candidate needs to achieve and the skills your company necessitates to fit in the role they are trying to fill. Come up with a test that allows you to evaluate the candidate's skills and knowledge concerning the position and industry they are applying for.
Whiteboard Advisors released a paper revealing that skill-based hiring is capable of lessening employee turnover by 73% and diminishes the hiring time. Since these skill tests are designed to prevent any unqualified candidates from joining, your hiring process shall become far more streamlined and efficient in the long run.
Ask if they are aware of the organization's culture.
When you are interviewing a potential candidate, consider asking them what they know about your organization and its culture. That will let you know if the potential candidate has taken the time to research your organization. You could also ask the potential candidate if they have any questions about the company culture based on the information they have gathered for the interview.
Knowing if they can fit into your company's working environment will be an indicator on how well they succeed as an employee. It also allows you to discover if they share any of the same business values your company upholds. Plus, it lets you know that the potential employee is resourceful when they are aware of your company culture before the interview date.
Offer a chance for Q&A.
It's typical to allow candidates an opportunity to ask questions near the end of an interview, but time constraints will usually limit the questions asked to one or two. However, when presented with the chance for a job, most people have some questions they want to ask once they have had an opportunity to think about the interview.
To decide whether they fit, take some time to answer your candidate's questions by granting them several chances to speak with you beyond the interview. Schedule some check-ins at every stage of the hiring process to see if they have any questions they need answering.
Ask them what their thoughts are about their ideal workplace and how they feel they could fit in your company. Bringing up the topic of company culture during the interview allows you to understand them better. It also prevents any issues or complaints from surfacing later on.
Conclusion
Remote employees are becoming the future for many companies. However, business leaders need to ensure they are determining if the people they onboard are capable of fitting in with the rest of the organization. If the people you hire are incapable of aligning themselves with the company goals or work with the team, then there will be complications in the future.