Question:
Culture fit is
important these days. But what do you do if an existing employee is just not a
great fit? Or, if your culture is shifting for an employee doesn't seem to be
able to shift with it? I'm looking for input from HR and business professionals
on: 1) how to spot a mismatch 2) steps to take to get the employee
aligned 3) what to do when your best efforts don't work?
Answer:
Culture fit is a term that has an unclear meaning. We think we know what it means - but we also need to make sure we don’t use “cultural fit” as a way to
exclude people and avoid diversity.
To really answer these questions I would need to ask a bunch of questions to find out what exactly the underlying problem is - you are trying to address by talking about culture fit.
But first a word on cultural shifts.
Culture shifts within
an organization take time to occur. Especially if the shift is intentional.
When people struggle with the shift – it doesn’t mean anything bad or
that the person is not a good fit. It just means, change takes time. I did
a talk on this for HR professionals just last week. Resistance to change
is predicted to occur, so people orchestrating cultural change should be
patient with people resisting – to a point. I have found that the people
most resistant, often become the biggest champions once they make the change
themselves. It’s actually really rare for someone to just be toxic.
But if someone is toxic – they eventually need to go – but you won’t know that
until the 3rd change wave has occurred.
To answer your questions.
This should be done in onboarding and dealt
with. This is often less about culture than it is about motivation. I
used to do volunteer management for an animal welfare organization. We would
occasionally get people volunteering who were interested in animal rights. This
was a mismatch, or what I would call other motivation. We were not an
animal rights organization and anyone wanting to volunteer in an animal rights
organization would be problematic because they would spend all their time
trying to get us to work on animal rights and the organization was set up to do
animal welfare. It’s not that one motivation is better than the other.
It’s just that – they had different motivations, goals and purposes. Hence –
other motivation. If you had a hot dog shop and were looking to hire
someone and that someone really wanted to sell hamburgers, but you don’t sell
hamburgers – then they would not be a good fit – because they would be other
motivated. Motivated to do something “other” than what your organization
does. Whenever this happened, I would refer them to another organization
whose goal and purpose aligned with the prospective volunteer. When
you interview, it’s good to get a sense of what the person wants to do and why
they want to work for your organization. This will help weed out any other
motivated people. It is ok if someone just wants a job. But it’s not ok
if they really really want to do something other than what you are asking them
to do in this job.
As for culture – I
rarely see mismatches. Most people value the same things everywhere in
the world, so most people are capable of getting along just fine with each
other regardless of their “cultural background.” This is why my first instinct
when I hear the term cultural fit in an HR context is to wonder whether this
requirement will end up excluding people that would otherwise make great
employees. This is why maybe you need to better define the term “culture fit”
to help us understand what exactly the problem is you are trying to address.
Why does culture matter? What do you really mean by culture? What
is different – if the culture fit is good among the employees?
The one big difference
that I do see is how autonomous people like to be. Some people need a lot of
autonomy. Others want a lot of oversight. But again – that’s a matter of
onboarding properly so that each employee gets placed in a work environment
that works for them.
2.
Steps
to take to get the employee aligned.
Well – why? Why do you want them
aligned? If the problem is motivation and understanding of work
roles – then clarifying work roles can help. If there are interpersonal
problems, then those need to be addressed. If you want everyone to
get on board with an ethical culture of giving? Why? Isn’t it ok
for someone to just do the job. I interviewed Manuel Guillen of the
University of Valencia last fall on ethical culture in work. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHurPInnC7o) He said that
the only obligation the company can have is to lay the groundwork for ethical
values to grow within the organization. It’s like laying a flower bed.
You nourish it and seed it – but the individuals decide how much to embrace of
the values and vision. You can’t force people to work from a higher order
motivation in their work and it would be unethical to demand that of
employees. The bigger concern is – is the work getting done and is it
getting done in an ethical dignified manner? Yes – Great. No? What do you need
to change to create space and encouragement for that to occur. But that’s a
management issue and a management failure – not a matter of employee fit.
But to answer the
question – I would go into interview mode to find out why there is a disconnect
and get the employees perspective on things. What do they need? Normally
though, when the fit is bad – it’s because there is a problem with the manager.
3.
What
do you do when your best efforts don’t work?
Question whether you are the
problem. I seem to have to say this in every presentation I do, but if
you are not getting the results you want – then you are doing something
wrong. Often, it means our rewards and reinforcements are out of
alignment. Or – worse, we are providing perverse incentives to our
employees and so we accidentally reward behavior we don’t want and
disincentivize the behavior we do want. 99% of the time, this is the
problem. Occasionally though, you do get someone who is truly toxic and
if you identify someone who is unethical – lying for instance – and doing it
pathologically – you do need to get rid of them. When I took over the
volunteer management job at the SPCA I worked for – I had 10 volunteers and
toxic employee volunteer relationships. I reset the relationships
and all, but one got on board and were very excited about the changes we made.
Staff responded well too. After about 6 months, I had to fire the one volunteer
who did not want to get with the new way of doing things. But she made
that choice for me by refusing to abide by the new rules and procedures – well
after everyone else had adjusted.
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