A company stays alive, when it’s culture stays alive

So, the ‘big’ day finally arrives, you’ve spent the last few days prepping for the interview and you absolutely knock them for six. You asked the right questions and had the right answers. All that you can do now is wait.

The call comes. You’re a mix of nervous and hopeful, after all the interview went off without a glitch.

“I would like to thank you for your time, whilst we were really impressed with how you interviewed and we don’t have any reservations about your capabilities for this job, we just don’t feel you’re the right culture fit for our company. We wish you all the best in your continued job search”

WOW! Did you seriously just get told you weren’t the right ‘culture fit’? What does that even mean? What are you meant to take from that?

Well don’t despair, whilst it may sound like a negative and ultimately feels like code for ‘you don’t have the right personality’ it’s likely a blessing in disguise. After all, you wouldn’t want to find out a few months down the line that your expectations and theirs fail to mesh, right?

You see culture isn’t on a spreadsheet and it isn’t something that you can measure, or quantify in terms of qualifications or experience. Culture is unique to each company, it’s an energy wave built through words and actions.

Often candidates will tell me the job description is exactly what they’re doing in their current job or plead with me to secure them an interview because they know they can do the job. Though, one of the many things I’ve learnt so far is that recruitment is not just a clerical word matching exercise but a human match-making exercise. At times, I feel like a professional cupid.

Any organisation is only as strong as the people who work there, and critical to the success of a company is finding employees who are grounded by the same core values that are outlined in the company’s mission statement.

You might possess all the relevant skills but they may feel your attitude and personality doesn’t align with their credo. So how can you understand the culture of a company? RESEARCH! What are their goals and how do you fit in with them?

Culture fit is paramount, particularly when searching for a Personal Assistant. Typically, one will be supporting or working in partnership with one or a few individuals, whilst you may be perfect on paper if you don’t vibe with each other it could be a recipe for disaster.

Here at Attic, one of the many things that I like about our ‘culture’ is that we all seek to stay true to the values Kirsty and Sarah have imparted and maintained over the years. One being that we place huge emphasis on character matching, whether it be for a short temporary assignment or a permanent job, ultimately we endeavour to send candidates who don’t just want a new job but who have a sense of their own value and who will contribute effectively. To do this we get our noses out of the CV’s and invest the time to get to know our candidates.

Don’t be disheartened when you’re told you’re not the right culture fit, most of us will spend a third of our lives at work and research shows that good cultural fit is linked to greater job satisfaction and influences opportunities for both professional and personal growth.

A company stays alive, when it’s culture stays alive.

Lauren Lewis – Temporary Division Manager