Interviewing for Cultural Fit: How to Hire Employees Who Thrive

Interviewing for Cultural Fit
You don’t want everyone in your organization to think, act, or work the same way — diversity of thought drives innovation and resilience. But because every strategy must flow through your people and culture to be executed successfully, you do want a workforce that:

• Collaborates effectively.
• Is motivated by a shared purpose and direction.
• Commits to high performance.

Our organizational culture assessment data consistently show that cultural misfits and even toxic high performers aren’t just challenging to manage — they’re costly. They:

• Drain productivity.
• Erode morale.
• Create friction.
• Slow strategy execution.

That’s why assessing for cultural fit — or more accurately, cultural alignment — should be a conscious part of every hiring decision.

Every interviewer should understand and evaluate the cultural factors that define how your organization truly operates — not to screen out differences, but to ensure that new hires can:

• Thrive within your values and norms.
• Contribute to your strategy.
• Strengthen your culture, not work against it.

Behavioral Interviewing Increases Your Chances for Success
Building an aligned and high performing company takes planning from the beginning. And one of the best ways to select talented employees who will fit the high performance culture you want to build is to:

• Follow behavior-based interviewing best practices.
• Use people manager assessment centers.
• Deploy leadership simulation assessments for high stakes roles.

You Need to Uncover Motivation — Because It Matters
New hire success does not just depend on a worker’s experience and ability but also their motivation and learning aptitude. You need to learn how interested and capable the candidate is in doing the work that the job requires and how likely they are to work well with others within your unique organizational culture.

Interviewing for Cultural Fit: Proven Techniques for Finding the Best Talent

While most people think about just cultural hiring for a match in terms of corporate values and strategic vision, we find that interviewers do not do enough to assess a candidate’s ability to mesh with the way people think, work, and behave.  Here are four underestimated factors to uncover when interviewing for cultural fit that will help to better predict hiring success:

1. Speed
   Will the candidate do well at the pace your company operates? We find pace varies greatly from company to company and industry to industry.
2. Style
   Are they more used to an entrepreneurial environment or a more established, structured one? It is very different to work at IBM than it is to work at Zappos.
3. Autonomy and Collaboration
   Do they work better with frequent supervision or with more autonomy? Do they collaborate and work well with teams playing various roles or are they more of a lone wolf?
4. Adaptability
   How flexible are they in different situations and circumstances? Will they be able to adapt to changing conditions and managerial styles?

The Bottom Line
Poor cultural fits inevitably create friction — no matter how strong their technical skills or productivity may be. If a candidate doesn’t align with your company’s values and ways of working, resist the temptation to compromise. Keep looking for someone who both performs well and strengthens your culture — the long-term health of your team depends on it.

Discover the cultural factors that help organizations attract, retain, and develop top talent. Download The 3 Critical Levels of a High-Performing Culture Every Leader Must Get Right today.

by Tristam Brown: CEO

Tristam Brown is an executive business consultant and organizational development expert with more than three decades of experience helping organizations accelerate performance, build high-impact teams, and turn strategy into execution. As CEO of LSA Global, he works with leaders to get and stay aligned™ through research-backed strategy, culture, and talent solutions that produce measurable, business-critical results. See full bio.