The Importance of Culture Fit in a Startup Hiring
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With the slew of Millennials in the workplace today coupled with the thriving startup scene, startup companies exudes the impression of a dynamic workplace - an environment with endless opportunities for employees to grow and learn, chances for employees to contribute innovative ideas that might fuel the company's growth and the possibility of reaping huge rewards should the company eventually succeeds and grow.
However, it is the dynamic and high-staked startup environment that makes it crucial to emphasize on the workplace culture during the startup hiring process. With only a handful of staff within a startup, the impact of a strong fit or a mismatch is highly magnified. An employee that can assimilate well into the startup culture can help to boost morale, increase productivity levels and encourage more innovative and creative ideas. On the other hand, an employee that is unable to fit into the startup culture might result in a disengaged workforce or worse, bring down the entire startup venture.
Challenges of building a strong startup culture
While some job seekers might be motivated by the higher risk and uncertainty associated with a startup, it can also contribute to a stressful environment. This might eventually result in tensions running high, disagreements amongst employees and clashes over personality.
Understandably, in the early days of a startup, the primary focus is on profitability and sustainability. This then results in little time for workplace culture development. Without a clear direction on the workplace values and culture, a startup might risk running into a company with no clear culture or even developing a toxic workplace culture moving forward.
It is therefore imperative for startups to identify a clear workplace culture from the start and communicate them clearly and regularly in order to instill and reinforce the workplace culture in employees.
Here are some suggestions to prioritise the startup culture during the hiring process.
Define and market the company's mission and core values.
It will be difficult to manage your startup culture with a clear understanding of the culture you want to achieve within your startup environment and the message that you want your startup to embody. Ensure that your startup mission and core values are expressed clearly on career site or job listings, so that job seekers are able to determine whether your company's mission and values are aligned with their own goals and values.
Incorporate words that reflect your company culture into your job titles and descriptions.
Ensure that your job descriptions and content reflect your startup's goals and values. Write job titles that reflect the diverse responsibilities of the roles within your startup. Include in your job descriptions how your startup intends to incorporate the company values into the role's daily roles and responsibilities
Brand your startup values and culture.
Get creative! Feature photos and videos of your startup's activities - be it a simply pantry lunch get-together or team bonding activities on your startup website or social media page. This can help to provide job seekers a better understanding of the startup culture.
[Article migrated from dcHR.tech]