How to fully explore culture when hiring – and why it matters

Over the past 15 years, our experience has shown us the profound importance of company culture when it comes to making successful appointments.

And we’re not alone; in a compelling TED talk by BCG’s Rainer Strack that delves into global workforce challenges, culture emerges as one of the top four factors people consider when looking for a new job. Given the backdrop of a growing demand for labour due to aging populations, the rise of AI and technology, and a shortage of highly skilled talent in most major economies by 2030 – it is imperative organisations get this right.

In a competitive global market, embedding culture assessment into your hiring process and fostering an environment where preferences and values are fully explored during interview will be vital to attracting and retaining the best people. In 2021 and in partnership with Ipsos Karian and Box, we developed our bespoke tool, to help do this called Cultureview. It explores a range of key areas including:

• the depth and recency of capability and experience in corporate affairs
• any specific cultural traits they want to avoid, and their level of tolerance for them

These are all mapped to the culture and capability needs of the hiring organisation. Discussing the results at interview drives open and honest dialogue, all while promoting diversity, equity and inclusion by focusing decision making on capability and culture add – not background or characteristics.

Matt Howells, Chief People Officer at M&G, had this to say about using it:

“Cultureview provided an added level of insight into each candidate we interviewed. It helped us to explore their suitability for the role and our suitability for the candidate in a more focused way. It really added value to an already thorough process.”

We offer Cultureview as part of all searches we run and it can be used as a standalone tool to complement your own process. If you’d like to find out more and receive a sample report, please email us on: hello@birchwoodknight.com