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One Bad Apple Spoils the Barrel

by Johanna

Determining if a job candidate is a cultural fit is one of the most important criteria to look for during the recruitment process. Often, organizations learn the hard way: by hiring job candidates with superior experience and skill sets, but ignoring the nagging suspicion that the person may not gel with the culture. It's tempting to ignore your gut in favor of getting someone in the door, but hastiness can mean that an entire team effort and group synergy is brought down by one individual. On the flipside, hiring a team member who is a cultural fit reinforces those dynamics that are critical to the group's success.

How do you define culture? I always thought it was similar to determining if a joke is funny - you know it when you hear it. However, defining and evaluating the culture fit of candidates is one of the most important parts of recruiting. One blogger uses a poker game as a pretty fitting example.

Here at kasina, our culture is built around characteristics like the following:

• A love of learning
• Creativity
• Focus on team
• Passion for new ideas

Culture is influenced by each member of an organization. Each addition to the kasina family has a noticeable impact -- this makes the stakes high for choosing whom to hire, and means it's worth waiting to find that perfect fit.

Even though financial services firms and distribution organizations can be 10 (or 100) times the size of kasina, each marketing and sales team should take the time to define the current status and vision for the group culture. For example, one e-Business group puts job candidates through an extremely rigorous hiring process that involves interviews with both junior and very senior members of the firm. In any of these meetings, if a candidate repeatedly uses the word "I" instead of "we," it raises flags that that person will not fit within the close-knit team environment.