Workplace culture is the character and personality of your organisation. And your employees are at the heart of that So how can you ensure that you continue hiring people that are the right fit for your company's culture?

Clear Branding

First and foremost, you should be making it clear on your website and any job advertisements what your business is about. Communicate your own values and ethos and what you look for in a successful employee from the get go, and that way you know you'll be initially attracting the people that hold similar outlooks - before the hiring process has even begun. Whilst it's positive that they personally feel like they'll mesh well with your company, it's not enough to simply rely on that person's instinct. The next step is for you to do a bit of investigating. Often when you're reading through CVs and cover letters you can gauge a little bit of an individual's personality and who they would be as an employee, but it doesn't allow you to really determine if they are the person you want representing your company.

Asking The Right Question

So, it's time for the interview. When you first meet someone, you might get a 'gut feeling', you might get a good "vibe" from them, but don't simply go off of this. This is the perfect opportunity for you to get all the answers you're looking for, so you know all you need when they walk back out the door. But what questions do you need to ask? How can you dig for the right information without sounding too invasive? You might want to take a more casual approach and find out what they're like outside of the office with personality based questions:

• What do you get up to in your free time/what does a typical weekend look like for you?
• What are you passionate about and why?
• What's your best and worst personality trait?
• Who do you look up to the most, if anyone, and why?
• Tell me about a time when you were most proud of yourself.

Or you could go for more obvious value-based questions specific to job roles¦

• What do you value most in a workplace environment?
• Describe a time when you dealt with change.
• Do you prefer working in a team or on your own? Why? What type of team do you thrive in?
• What motivates you professionally?
• What is the most useful criticism you've ever received?

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Reference the company's missions, values and vision during the interview, and ask how they think they would successfully reinforce these within the role. For example,

• Have you read our values? Which one resonated with you the most?

Hopefully they'll already have well considered responses for you regarding this topic, and that initiative will speak volumes in itself. They recognised the importance of your message and took the time to think about their cultural fit, as well as job fit. These are just a few suggestions, but our biggest suggestion is getting creative! Nobody likes the typical mundane interview questions, so switch it up. Make the interview a positive experience for both yourself and the candidate!

Prep Them

So, you've decided they're the best person for the job and it's time to get them integrated into the work environment. What's next? Well, it's now a popular practice to hold a cultural induction within the first few days of the start of the role. The approach you want to take to it is completely up to you and how you run your company, but it just gives both you and the new starters an opportunity to dig even deeper into core values, behavioural attitudes, and a chance for you to lay down any dos and don'ts. You'll probably find that employees will really appreciate you taking the extra time to address these elements

Catch Up

Most likely you'll have a performance review lined up after the first month or so of their employment. However, you should take it as a chance to also delve into how they're feeling as a new person in the team and their own attitudes towards the work environment and culture so far, and how you personally think they've been getting along. If you want to learn more about what type of recruitment is best for your company, check out our blog: Agency Vs In-House Recruitment: How To Choose The Right Recruitment Style For You. Because we know how important it is to hire the right people. If you still want more advice on recruiting for your company, get in touch with us - we're experts in it after all.