Cultural Fit - A Nebulous Target

There is an ongoing discussion within our industry about what the primary key performance indicator for success in a hires is. We all accept for the most part as organizations we hire competent people. We hire individuals who on paper at least can perform the duties and responsibilities of the positions. Then we add this thing called do they fit the culture of the organization.

But what do we mean by culture fit? Is it some set in stone characteristic of the organization? How do we determine what it is a true cultural fit? Dictionary.com defines corporate culture as the distinctive ethos of an organization that influences the level of formality, loyalty, and general behavior of its employees. John Coleman in the May 6, 2013 edition of the HBR Blog Network wrote that there are six components of a great corporate culture. In which he said the six components are vision, values, practices, people, narrative, and place. Typically we believe that the basis for this comes from upper management and works its way down through the organization. But the question has to be posed what happens to the corporate culture when the person responsible for its development leaves or is forced out. An example is what happens to the corporate culture at Men’s Warehouse now that the founder and CEO have been forced out. George Zimmer’s passion and view are now gone from the organization.

I had the opportunity to attend the local SHRM chapter meeting the other night and the speaker was Jeff Knight (@knightspeaker) who presented a program entitled Culture Rocks. During his presentation he made a very profound statement when he said that “the culture of an organization changes every time human capital assets join or leave the organization.”

Stop for a minute and really think about that statement. If we strive to find not only competent human capital assets but ones that fit our particular corporate culture - Individuals who believe and follow our vision, values, practices, narrative and place along with the organizational human capital assets, how do we do that if the target (corporate cultural fit) changes every time we hire someone or let someone go? How do we define our corporate culture when it is like the Midwest weather, changing every few moments depending on the whim of the environment.

While we readily agree that human capital assets have to function within our organizations, it is unclear whether corporate culture is a true indicator when it is a nebulous target changing constantly. If you are an organization with zero turn over we may be able to define that fit. However if you are experiencing any degree of turnover then we have an entirely different picture in play. The corporate culture you have today very well might not be the corporate culture in place tomorrow. It changes the playing field if only for a fleeting moment.

Consider your organizational culture, how does it change as the human capital asset population changes? Have you had the serious discussion as to the impact of the FTE changes? This morning it was reported on Good morning America that 70% of employees hate their jobs and/or their bosses. If that is true how does that affect your culture?

Achieving HR Excellence through Six Sigma - CRC Press Book

Achieving HR Excellence through Six Sigma - CRC Press Book

Do what you can today; you may not be here tomorrow

Once gain one of our local churches provided the basis for this blog post. Driving past it the other day their electronic billboard admonished drivers to “Do what you can today; you might not be here tomorrow.” When I stopped and gave it some consideration it reminded me of some business organizations out there.
Consider first your own personal situations. I am almost certain that each and every one of you has a “honey-do list.” It contains all those projects that you plan to get to eventually. What is your typical response to the items on the list? Most likely you find someway to postpone getting these projects completed. I get it, procrastination is only human. With summer just beginning you probably say it is too nice to not be at the beach, or it is too hot to be working out in the yard today. The run comes when the hone-do list is from work and not at home. Procrastination in the business world can mean the death of the organization.
You know you have issues within the organization. Management tells you sales are down. Customers are threatening to move their business to that other organization down the street or across the globe. We come up with ideas on how to resolve issues confronting the organization to resolve these critical problems. So what is our immediate response? We assign it to a study group to investigate it. We get a management team to completely analyze the idea. We send the concept to finance to do a total financial analysis of the details as compared to the organizational bottom line. Then we send to another committee for review. We rapidly reach a point of decision paralysis. Decision paralysis leads to decision death of the organization. When we keep putting off decisions we have a direct effect on the future of the organization.
General Electric understood this when they introduced both the GE Workout Process and the Change Acceleration Process. In either case the impetus was to design a process whereby decisions were made correctly and quickly. The design of the two processes was to have a team to identify a problem and its proposed solutions and have management immediately provide a thumbs up or thumbs down on the project. If the decision was thumbs down, the management team member had to explain why. No passing it in for further study. No passing it on for a committee to make a delayed decision.The decision was in the present future.
As a viable business organization you have as an ultimate mission to locate, sign on and retain customers(internal and external). We do this by delivering our products or services cheaper, better and faster than the competition. We do this by being first in the market with new innovations. In order to reach that goal we need to be assertive in resolving service issues.

Mr CEO I heard you found a source of cheap labor, not so fast

Almost every college career services department in the country pushes to area employers the benefits of using their internship program. On the first look it is a no brainer for the corporation. They get added manpower during heavy workload times and they can usually get it without any financial impact on the corporation. For the student it provides them with some work experience in the real world and exposure to varying industries from which they can plan out their career.

Unfortunately some organizations have chosen to take advantage of the concept in order to reduce headcount expenses. Ever hear of these scenarios:

HR and/or the hiring manager interviews a prospective candidate and suggests in order to view their work ethics would the candidate be willing to work on a project with no compensation.
A school wanting to screen a prospective teacher asks them to cover a class for a couple of days as part of the evaluation process at no pay.

The concept sounds good but based on complaints the U.S. Department of Labor has said wait not so fast. It is entirely possible that your great thoughts might be a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. In order to be sure that your organization is on safe grounds when using an individual as an intern, the DOL says the following conditions must be in place.

The internship, even though it includes actual operations of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment;
The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern
The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff;
The employer that provides training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded;
The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship;
The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship

While the concept of having an intern within your organization is appealing, the motivation behind the use of an intern is heavy with risk for the organization. As a human resource professional it is your responsibility to ensure that the use of interns within the organization is not abused. It is the role of HR to foresee the potential improper use of human capital assets as interns. Failure to do so can mean that the financial impact on the corporation can outweigh the benefit of their use. Be sure to check with your corporate employment counsel to make sure that all the criteria are properly met.

So Mr. CEO you may have found that source for cheap labor, just don't jump the gun before you make sure that the corporation has evaluated the risk of bringing on an intern and not in violation of the FLSA. It is for your ability to sleep at night to ensure that it is done right.