Johannesburg - Although you’ve worked hard to hone your professional skills over the years, in today’s competitive specialist recruitment space, landing the perfect job is no longer only about your core competencies.
It’s also about cultural fit, and how easily you will assimilate into potential employers’ existing cultures.
While cultural fit can mean different things in different niche sectors, ultimately it refers to your values and your ability to draw on these values in successfully performing your role within a specific work environment.
Your skills set, qualification and experience might meet an employer’s requirements, but if your values are completely mismatched with theirs, or you’re unable to do your job in the company’s prevailing environment, your skills – no matter how great they are – could go out the window.
From a recruiter’s perspective, matching perfect candidates to perfect employers can be like personal matchmaking. You wouldn’t want a romantic partner who ticked all the boxes, yet when you were together, there was no chemistry, right? Personnel placement is the same!
While it is up to employers to articulate their values to make the recruitment process easier, you as the candidate can help facilitate this process by assessing whether your personality and personal values are in line with those of a prospective employer and the specific team you would be part of.
Remember, company cultures are made up of not only the values management would like to see employees demonstrate, which reflect the company’s philosophy and beliefs, but also of the personal values of every employee.
And new employees are expected to contribute to and help sustain that inherent culture.
As an employer, aim to establish a well-defined company culture by:
* Deciphering your core values and putting them into practice– Take time to analyse your company values and determine how best they can be put into action.
Managers who understand your values are beneficial to your company, as they will hire the right person for both their team and the organisation.
* Communicating your core values to candidates– Consider communicating your corporate culture, mission and values to potential candidates through your website, blog and social media accounts. Be creative, and share stories to attract the right candidates.
As a jobseeker, remember:
* Values cannot be taught– Employers can always teach employees specific skills, but when it comes to cultural fit, they cannot teach a person to be a team player or to go the extra mile to get the job done.
* Take assessment tests seriously– Don’t try to manipulate assessments in the hope of getting that plum job. Assessment tests really do indicate personality traits, and lying or being flippant in your answers can create a negative perspective on your otherwise positive personal values.
While the tests cannot provide a 100 percent realistic picture, they do provide specialist consultants with an overview of what type of person you are, helping to ensure a correct cultural match.
* Corné Booysen is a senior branch manager at Network Recruitment.
THE STAR