What is culture fit?

The definition of culture fit is broad, and so what you look for in a candidate here will depend on your own company’s values. When assessing for culture fit, you will be looking at factors relating to whether your company and your candidate share the same values.

Another important element of culture fit is whether you can see your candidate contributing to the successes of your pre-existing team, which is likely to involve working with other employees well. They should understand the relationships and hierarchies of your business without needing to be reminded (although they will probably need onboarding, just like everyone else).

A candidate’s qualifications can only take them so far. With a culture fit interview, you will be finding out more about how they react to situations, solve problems and work with both their peers and managers. We will look at some culture-fit topics, plus interview questions for culture fit that are relevant to them.

How your candidate works with others

One of the core aspects of cultural fit is interpersonal relationships. The way that your candidate has previously worked with and socialised with their colleagues might tell you a lot about how they would fit into your team. If you are recruiting a new manager, a culture fit interview is a good opportunity to find out how they work with their subordinates.

Their management style may or may not be the right fit, depending on whether your business uses a hard or soft human resources management style. This might also be a useful time to find out more about their conflict management style, as it will tell you how they might handle employee or customer conflicts. 

While some candidates might have the skills and experience to do the job well, they might not have the right personality or diplomacy skills to be your first choice. Related questions that you could ask include:

• Which management style(s) do you prefer (as a manager)?
• Which management style(s) do you prefer (when you are being managed)?
• Describe your preferred conflict management style.
• Do you prefer to work by yourself or as part of a team?
• Describe the personality of a colleague who you connected well with at your previous workplace.
• How have your colleagues previously described your personality?

Their preferred methods of working

You can also use interview questions for culture fit to find out whether your candidate has an approach to working that fits in with your team. This can tell you a lot about a candidate’s personality as well. Some candidates might have an outgoing personality, which means that they enjoy customer and client-facing roles.

They might be hard-working and productive in these scenarios, but feel bored when they have to work on more administrative duties. These candidates work best when they can be the face of your company. 

Other candidates might be less keen on public-facing responsibilities, but have a strong aptitude for administration or technology. They might be a highly prized asset to companies looking for someone who is able to quietly produce work in an office setting.

These candidates may prefer sitting down for longer periods of time and work well in a team of other office workers. They might also be good at taking responsibility for their workloads when they are working alone, such as from home or otherwise remotely. 

Some candidates who are applying for a managerial position might already have experience of delegating tasks. This is a good skill to look out for, as it shows that this candidate is able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of their team. They can then apply this knowledge to delegate the right tasks to the right employees.

Not only can these candidates be highly organised, but they often have great people skills too and are good listeners. Some culture fit questions you can ask to find out how a candidate likes to work include:

• Tell me about a time when you had great rapport with a customer or client.
• What did you enjoy most about your previous work?
• Do you prefer to work remotely or in an office?
• Which do you prefer in an average work day: talking to customers and/or clients, or working with your colleagues in an office space?

Hobbies and interests outside of work

If you think that it could be relevant to their role, you can ask candidates about their hobbies and interests outside of work. When recruiting for a position that requires passion for something, it is useful to select someone who is enthusiastic and is able to communicate this well.

This could be a customer-facing role in which employees are selling books, outdoor equipment, musical equipment or games. Charities and related organisations might also benefit from finding out how much a candidate already participates in charity work.

When a candidate’s interests are aligned with the product that you sell, they can share their own knowledge with your customers. It also means that they are possibly better equipped to answer customer questions and solve issues regarding your product. 

While you might not want to choose a candidate solely on the basis of their hobbies and interests, it can give you some indication as to whether they would fit in well with your current team.

If they share similar interests to your pre-existing staff, they are more likely to connect socially. When your employees can connect socially as well as professionally, it can help foster your company culture. They might be more inclined to go for after-work drinks or other social activities. Questions you could ask to find out more about a candidate’s hobbies and interests include:

• Are you involved in any groups or clubs outside of work?
• What are you passionate about in your spare time?
• Do you enjoy sports or any other activities after work?
• Are you involved in any charity work?

Ask candidates about your own company culture

Another way you can find out whether a candidate is the right culture fit for you is to ask how much they know about your company culture already. This could include your company values and policies. They might mention a time when they worked with the company on a project. Or, they could discuss their own personal experiences with your customer service.

This shows that they already recognise some of the ways in which your company works and how they could fit in. Perhaps your company supports a cause or charity that matters to your candidate: finding out why certain causes are important can give you an indication of whether they will be proud to work for you. Questions you could ask to find out more include:

• Which company values were you drawn to when you applied for this role?
• What would you say are your own personal values?
• Which charities or causes do you support?
• Are you interested in any of the causes that our company has been involved in?

Interview questions for culture fit provide you with a holistic picture of a candidate’s personality, including how they might click with your pre-existing team. This is useful as not all candidates with the right skills will work well with your company. Asking these questions can help you decide between very strong candidates with similar skill sets as well.

All in all, culture fit interview questions have great potential to save you time and money. New recruits who feel like they belong in your team are also potentially more likely to want to stay.

This type of interview question might work best when combined with other interview approaches that factor in competency, skills and leadership styles. After all, you are hoping to gain a well-rounded picture of not only your candidate’s personality, but whether they are going to be excellent at the job.