Culture Filter

Cultural Fit: Considerations Before Interviewing

Something feels broken in our current recruiting system. Research tells us that firm success, innovativeness and bottom-line productivity depend upon having the "right" workforce, emphasizing the alignment of corporate cultural values between organizations and their employees. Yet, all around me, I see firms inviting candidates to interviews based on a system of keyword matching, looking for technical skills and previous experience, but leaving out other important job fit "intangibles" -- assuming these can only be ascertained during a face-to-face conversation. Ironically, under the current system, the candidates with the best organizational or "cultural" fit may not even make the initial cut for the personal interview!

Imagine yourself as a job seeker, running your routine daily search on some online job-board. Got a match? Or have you just received an email from a recruiter with a typical one-pager from some company about a vacant position they have to fill? Encouraged that you see a match between their requirements and your own skill set, you’re ready to send your resume out...

Now, put yourself in the hiring manager's shoes who wants to fill that same vacant position. You have submitted a job description to your HR department or to a recruiter you’re working with. They deliver to you a stack of resumes that have the strongest keyword match of technical skills and prior experiences to your job description. It's now time to decide who, within that resume pool, will make the initial cut and move on to a first interview.

Yet, at that moment, neither side has a clue whether there is a cultural fit between the candidate and the hiring organization. Sure, it can all be figured out in a personal interview, but again, what are the chances that the right person will even be invited?

Ok, how important is that "fit" anyway? Do the HR Professionals and Hiring Managers fully recognize its value for the hiring processes?

Scott Erker, SVP of Selection Solutions at Development Dimensions International, notes that "organizations seeking to achieve high levels of performance from their workforce are increasingly turning towards the concept of 'fit' as a critical factor in the success equation."

Yes, the previous experience and technical skills are still vital for the candidate to be able to perform the mechanics of the job. However, there is no guarantee that this candidate will be able to successfully transfer those skills into a new cultural environment. If not, (s)he will either not be hired at all, or fail shortly after getting hired.

Referring to testimonials of managers as well as information from various exit interviews, Erker sees a consistent pattern for individuals failing in the workplace: "They don't fit to the company, fit to the team or fit to the job. On the other hand, people who do fit tend to be more satisfied with their job, more engaged, and they tend to turn over less often."

If you are a hiring manager, would you rather hire a candidate who possesses better technical skills but who barely fits culturally, or one who may be a bit less matched technically but "right on the money" with your organizational culture?Which gap, skills or attitude, is easiest to close?

Carole Gumprich in her article about recruiting and training employees, notes: "A strong training program can build skills by guiding the worker through a series of exercises over time. Skills can generally be taught, but attitude is less of a training issue and more of a cultural fit issue."

In this day and age, hiring managers and recruiters rely on technology to filter out candidates based on keyword matches, while job seekers receive tons of advice on the internet about how to trick the system and get through the initial cut by getting the "right" keywords into their resumes... Let's assume that this keyword-matching game ended with an invitation to the interview, during which either one or both sides mutually decided that the candidate is not a cultural fit for the organization and should not be pursued further. How much of their precious, valuable time has just been wasted?

Job seekers have to set aside time to prepare for the interview, go through the interview, and send a thank-you note. The hiring manager needs to find a spot in their busy schedule to meet the candidate, conduct the interview and perform other post-interview activities (discussions, reviews, etc.).

Have you ever, either as a job seeker or a hiring manager, said to yourself – if I had known that it wasn’t a good match I wouldn't even have bothered doing it!

How can both job seekers and hiring managers increase the odds that they are finding their match?

For job seekers: pay more attention to the cultural values of the organization you're applying to. This information is definitely obtainable. First, do you have any connections to people in the company? Search the contacts you've made through any personal and professional networking sites you use, such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Fast Pitch. Check the company's website, consult the recruiter - look for the right messages! Here is an example of General Electic's messaging about their desired candidates, who "stimulate and relish change and are not frightened or paralyzed by it, see change as an opportunity, not a threat,” or “have a passion for excellence, hating bureaucracy and all the nonsense that comes with it." These messages clearly demonstrate the corporate culture in GE, and show what kind of people can succeed there.

For recruiters and hiring managers: enhance the application process by adding a quick questionnaire. Avoid direct queries where the desired answers are easily recognizable (e.g. "Are you a team player?" - Sure I am!). Move the applicants away from "selling" mode to "real-life" mode by instituting a Situational Judgment Test on cultural values, assessing candidates' actions in hypothetical work-related circumstances. The use of Situational Judgment Tests goes back to the 1920s and they are still widely used today. A strong level of validity of those tests on predicting overall job performance, dedication and interpersonal facilitation has been backed up by scholarly research conducted by Chan and Schmitt (2002), Clevenger, Pereira, Wiechmann, Schmitt, and Harvey (2001), McDaniel, Morgeson, Finnegan, Campion, and Braverman (2001), and many others.

Incorporating Situational Judgment Test results into the information about candidate's technical skills and experience from the resume, will allow you to make more educated predictions as to whether this candidate is a good overall fit for the company. You may find that your initial cut selected for the personal interview would look much different from the traditional keyword-matching approach and you'll have a much more suitable pool of candidates to fill your vacant position.

References:

Chan, D., Shmitt N. (2002). Situational Judgment and Job Performance, Human Performance, 15(3), 233–254

Clevenger, J., Pereira, G. M., Wiechmann, D., Schmitt, N.,&Harvey, V. S. (2001). Incremental validity of situational judgment tests. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 410–417.

Erker S, (2009) Advances in Culture-Fit Assessment, Human Resource Executive Online

Gumprich, M. (2007). Recruiting and Training Employees, London Swine Conference – Today’s Challenges… Tomorrow’s Opportunities

McDaniel, M. A., Morgeson, F. P., Finnegan, E. B., Campion, M. A., & Braverman, E. P. (2001). Predicting job performance using situational judgment tests: A clarification of the literature. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 730–740.

About the Author

Leon Tonkonogy is a founder and principal of art-cm, a consulting firm specializing in helping successful start-ups move up from the entrepreneurial stage to the professionally-managed level. Doctoral candidate in Organizational Consulting, Leon has more than 15 years of experience in project management, team building and development, organizational assessments and change management. He also holds a MS degree in Applied Mathematics. More information on Leon, and art-cm, can be found at http://www.art-cm.com

Laboratory Partitions And Tables And Laboratory Indoor Air Also Harbored The Majority Of The Contaminating Microbes

Laboratory partitions and tables and laboratory indoor air also harbored most of the damaging microbes. Microbes are living, biological contaminants which will be transmitted by contaminated consumers, animals and indoor air, and they can also journey by means of the air and obtain within homes and structures.
Tissue culture function must be freed from microbes. All culture vessels (glasswares and teflon plasticwares) are washed with detergent after which initial rinsed with faucet drinking water and then lastly with distilled water. Sometimes, the applied glasswares may also be autoclaved prior to washing to remove traces of agar also to ruin infection.The washed glasswares are then sterilized by dry warmth in an oven at 160-180.c for 3 hrs. Following pouring, the way of life vessels are plugged with non absorbent cotton and finally autoclaved at a pressure 1.06 kg/cm2 for twenty minutes in an autoclave. Some sorts of plasticwares and instruments like pipette may also be autoclavable For this reason, all of the tradition vessels, instruments, medium and plant material etc. made use of in.Instruments like forceps,scalpels, needles, spatula and so on. are initial dipped in 95% alcohol after which sterilized over flame after which depart for dry.
Some development regulators like GA3,Zeatin,urea, ABA, certain nutritional vitamins are heat liable hence, filter sterilized by passing by means of a membrane filter of 0.45u or reduce pore size.
The plate form of the laminar movement cabinet, palms of the operator etc. are sterilized by wiping them with 70% alcohol.
Plant material  is surface area sterilized by sodium or calcium hypochlorite resolution (0.3-0.6%) for 15-30 minutes. Other compounds used for surface area sterilization are mercuric chloride (0.1-1%), silver nitrate (1%), bromine h2o (1-2%), H2O2 (10-12%) etc. but it is mainly rely around the source and kind of the plant materials or explant.
All tissue culture functions like sterilization and inoculation of explant,transfer of plant materials are to be carried out inside a Laminar Air Movement Bench (HM-104, horizontal type). Laminar Circulation Bench is presterilized by ultraviolet radiation for 40-45 minutes. The Laminar Air Flow Bench is effectively swab with rectified spirit before beginning the inoculation function. Tissue culture rooms or lab will need to be preserve thoroughly clean and disinfectant.
The culture maintenance and tissue transfer rooms may possibly be fumigated with formalin at standard intervals in opposition to bacterial and fungal contaminations. It would be advisable for the employees to put on a lab coat and acid resistant gloves. Maintain footwear outside the lab, transfer room and development chamber is also recommended. All doorways and windows ought to be closed and all electrical circuits need to be of  ahead of the method of fumigation. Person will need to cover himself appropriately. Fumigation also kills insects and pests which are hiding under tables and in walls. It really is an easy process of  fumigation, within this just dip cotton in formalin and melt away it and keep in 2-3 places of lab and come out, shut the door right away. It can be a good idea to fumigate the lab on week stops so that it outcomes appropriately. Arrive early on monday, cover your self appropriately open the lab doors and windows and are available out. Ventilate the lab for 3-4 hours.

Cold water extraction separation - a potentially harmful glitch in the thinking?

So, they say, codeine dissolves into cold water but aspirin only goes into warm. The process is supposed to be: dissolve the lot into hot water, filter then cool it down and filter again. But solutes don't drop out just because a solution has been cooled to the temp that some other substance dissolves at, eh? If you freeze a cup of coffee you just get frozen coffee, not clean water sitting above precipitated instant coffee powder.

Likewise, if we mix codeine and aspirin into hot water, cooling it can't logically drop the aspirin and leave the codeine, can it?

It sounds like silly drug-culture mythology. And since they are all advising each other how to "safely" extract opiates from prescription medications maybe I have a responsibility to go back and tell them their alleged process is bunk?

Who are advising whom ?

Five things you should know about character in the workplace (desmoinesregister)

Our ability to discern right from wrong — and our commitment to do the right
thing for the right reason — is critical to the success of any organization.

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Converse - Mariachi El Bronx @ Filter's Culture Collide