April 12, 2016
Are you effectively aligning your company’s onboarding, development, and culture? How do you ensure that your technical hires will be a cultural fit? Searching for great talent and growing your team can be overwhelming; however, it doesn’t have to be! If you hire professionals who value the same principles as your organization, then you are one giant step closer to accomplishing this. At a recent Think IT meeting, we discussed how you can connect the dots between hiring new talent and fostering continuous development within your company’s culture.
Originally posted on Think IT.
How are you finding the right people to fit in and thrive within your corporate culture? Greg Waechter, Human Resources Director at Uptake, led the discussion with edge and a fresh perspective on the topic The Alignment of Onboarding, Development and Cultural Fit for Technical Talent.
Who in your organization owns culture? The answer is everyone. Greg mentioned that defining culture really becomes the anchors on which you make your decisions to do your business. What are your core values and is your organization living by them every day? Does the organization hold one another accountable for results?
Culture centers around three aspects:
- Aspire – What does your company want to be?
- Articulate-What is your brand saying? What “vibe” is your organization projecting?
- Actual – How do we as individuals and our team live our culture?
Getting there may be the tough part as there are constant moving parts, but it all begins with your organization’s leadership team. Whether you’re looking for the “ideal” fit for a single position or are experiencing a period of high growth, it is important to ensure that your core values are understood across the board and that your hiring decisions reflect those values.
Fostering a culture ofcontinuous learning
The group discussed two pieces that contribute to continuous learning: staying nimble and development. To stay nimble, it is crucial to monitor what is occurring within the market and then use that information to help you maintain a competitive edge. Creating a culture of awareness and innovation can also help your team develop as leaders. Think IT member Bill Franz mentioned that in his role he aims to empower his team and individual employees to focus on the technology pieces, allowing them to give options and make recommendations, and create a culture where new ideas are welcomed. Member Mark Las added, “Leaders need more emotional intelligence and to work harder at managing up and manage down, recognizing how to navigate and how you are dealing with your people.” How are you developing your people and what opportunities do you have available for them to succeed?
Check out these suggestions for creating a culture focused on learning:
- Mentorship and Coaching – Focus on leadership development and training. One way to do so is through engaging in performance reviews with a different spin. The rating piece of performance reviews has gone away within many organization and continuous conversations are taking their place. Ask questions like: What are you good at? What do you love to do? What are you doing to get better? Do you feel challenged? By playing to people’s strengths and having check-ins to see how it’s going and if employees really are challenged and engaged, you can provide much more effective mentoring and coaching to employees.
- Diverse Culture – Having a diverse staff can only help your business. Take the time to understand different backgrounds and how everyone’s different experiences can contribute to organizational success. View our blog on the topic of leveraging culture for more insight.
- Timely and Relevant Content – Having consistent and open communication and feedback is critical to driving your organization’s desired results.
- Delivery Mechanisms – Determine the best way to deliver training by finding that right mix to make sure that people are learning and your team is growing. Strive to incorporate a sense of teamwork and accountability.
- Reciprocity – Are you a giver or a taker? Aside from formal training, continuous learning occurs most often from our interactions with others. The group found that when you have a culture of reciprocity around learning, more individuals in the organization will be givers and share ideas to keep employees engaged.
When you bring someone in to your organization and they are not a good fit, it becomes evident fairly quickly. As we think about company culture across the board, everyone is mostly seeking the same thing, regardless of the generation to which they belong; they may just go about asking for it in a different way. Each organization is different and there is no one-size-fits all methodology. We do, however, understand that fostering collaboration, diversity and inclusion, and adaptability are some ways to help companies stay innovative and evolve. Whether you are in transition or part of an organization that is hiring and seeking that “ideal fit,” remember to stay true to who you are and ensure that the company or prospective hire reinforces your organizational values as that will only further your success.
How do you build a team together as a company which enriches your culture?
Posted By: Jaclyn Roman