| Now that almost everyone is hiring again, job specs are being prepared, candidates are being interviewed and decisions are being made, and that old intangible called Corporate Culture is appearing in conversation again. Since I think we are at the beginning of what will become the tightest labor market for skilled professionals that we have ever seen, this may be a good moment to explore the many uses of Corporate Culture as hiring criteria.
I’ve asked people what the phrase Corporate Culture means and I have never gotten a concrete answer. Most often, I get a stammering response and the phrase "well, you know, someone who fits our culture." I have never gotten an explanation of what concrete traits compose a Corporate Culture. The phrase seems to have a life of it’s own. It’s like Motherhood or Apple Pie. It means different things to different people. That can be very dangerous in a job spec. How can you make an objective evaluation of a candidate when one of the criteria means one thing to you, a different thing to your HR person and a third thing to the candidate? Ouch!
Let’s try and define what Corporate Culture should mean, then, for fun, I’ll go over some specific instances as to how that phrase has been twisted by companies over the years.
My definition of Corporate Culture is pretty simple. Corporate Culture is the informal way that organizations make decisions. Companies are temporary families. They are groups of people who have temporarily joined together to advance a common cause-economic success, i.e. profits. Just like families, companies have acceptable modes of behavior. Like in families, the definition of acceptable behavior can vary from company to company. Some families resolve conflict through loud arguments. Some through quiet discussion. Some have a parent as strict disciplinarian. Some have no discipline at all. It’s almost an infinite variety.
Corporate Culture can vary as much as family culture, if not more. In a company there are more players involved than a family. They also have less fidelity to each other and separate agendas. At its pure sense, Corporate Culture should best be defined as how decisions are reached. The best examples I can give include a company in Bucks County that manufactures electronic equipment. They have a very intense culture where dialog can be loud, heated and passionate. In their environment, you need to forcefully project your ideas and can’t have a thin skin. The person who yells the loudest often gets their way. That is acceptable to them because that decibel level is viewed as a commitment to the idea. In other words, the person most willing to publicly voice their idea is the one with the most commitment to that idea. It’s worked for them for years and is embedded in their culture. To have a successful career there, you can’t be afraid of confrontation and must not take rejection poorly. Not every person can thrive in that environment and an evaluation of how a candidate will react in that situation is a legitimate use of the phrase Corporate Culture.
On the other extreme is a medical device firm in Delaware. They never hurry to reach a decision and are fanatics about getting all their information in front of them before moving forward. It’s a consensus-oriented company where most decisions are reached by group agreement. Polite, deliberate and patient discussion is the key and they never rush to a decision. Occasionally, this has caused them to miss opportunities but it’s a trade off they have made successfully. They understand that they may sacrifice some short-term opportunities by taking the time to build organizational consensus. Hopefully, in return they make fewer mistakes in judgment and have more follow through once decisions are reached. It works for them. Their culture rewards people who can logically and slowly build their case but who also don’t personalize their ideas. In other words, if in the discussion it’s clear your ideas are not generating a consensus, you must quickly and without regret drop your concept and buy into the others ideas. A person at that company in Bucks County would be driven crazy at the firm in Delaware County. Evaluating candidates relative to patience, team building, etc is another appropriate use of Corporate Culture as hiring criteria.
Basically, I am saying is that there is nothing wrong with evaluating how a person communicates their ideas and thoughts in light of how your firm reaches decisions. However, first you should decide whether you have a strong Corporate Culture in your firm and what that Culture actually is. Then, decide if it’s healthy and you want it to continue. Some companies don’t have strong cultures, and that’s OK too. Realizing where you are on the Culture Continuum will help you more objectively evaluate a candidate’s fit.
OK, what about poor use of the phrase Corporate Culture? In some instances, cultures have become so strong they drive out new ideas, needed change or any new thinking. Some companies substitute inappropriate, even silly, criteria when evaluating candidates.
Some examples: A consulting firm in Center City interviews a person for a mid-level network engineering job. It had been a tough job for them to fill because it had unusual technical criteria and the pay was average, at best. After interviewing 5 people they finally find someone with the right tech skills and in their salary range. In the third interview with a person in Marketing, a "cultural" problem surfaced. That interviewer did not want the person hired because SHE DIDN’T LIKE HIS TIE!!! I kid you not. She felt because he had a garish tie, he would not fit their conservative culture. Now, this was an internal job with no client contact. I have no doubt that, if counseled in orientation about a dress code, he would have altered his tie selection to fit in with the rest of the firm. Somehow, in the warped definition of Corporate Culture, his color palette became a character issue without him even knowing about it.
Second example: A manufacturing firm in Chester County. I get a sheepish call from a Engineering Manager there. He has an excellent member on staff that he is going to have to let go. He wants to send me his resume so I can get the fellow another job. The manager tells me he is one of the best, most creative engineers he’s ever had but doesn’t fit the Corporate Culture. When I ask him to elaborate he says he’s almost too embarrassed to answer. It seems he drives the wrong type of car. Honest. Most of the company is made up of well-educated upwardly mobile professionals. Lots of imported cars in their parking lot. The candidate who didn’t fit the culture worked his way through college and was a piston-head since he was a kid. He loved tinkering on 8-cylinder American cars and that’s what he drove. It seems that his choice of vehicle caused his peers to make fun of him. This in turn hampered his ability to work with Marketing because Marketing kept hearing from other engineers that the guy didn’t fit. It took on a life of it’s own and it was easier to get rid of the guy and lose a good engineer than to change the Corporate Culture. The manager knew this was absurd but he had to work within the confines of the company. Sounds like high school and the manager knew it. He just couldn’t change it.
I have dozens of stories like this. Somehow, over the past 10 years the concept of Corporate Culture has taken on a meaning beyond any reasonable definition. It has allowed people to justify arbitrary decisions and to hide their biases behind the mythical religion of Corporate Culture. I am still baffled by the Fortune 100 company brochure I saw that on one page praises Diversity and on the other praises a Cohesive/Strong Corporate Culture. Sounds like two philosophies pulling in two different directions. I still don’t understand how you can eliminate a candidate because of vague Cultural issues yet still believe in Diversity as a goal.
As the market tightens and companies have a hard time hiring again, the first issue will always be - Can the person do the job? If the answer is yes, the company that has successfully evaluated their Culture and put it in it’s proper place among hiring criteria will get the better staff and will prosper more. They will also pay less money to consultants who help them create Corporate Culture. Less static and more focus on the key areas that make a company successful.
As always, please email or call with your thoughts, disagreements and arguments. And, of course, don’t forget Right Recruiting for your hiring needs.
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