Assessing Cultural Fit for Software Engineer Candidates
When you hire software engineers, you need them to not only be a good job fit (able to complete the job asked of them), but also a good cultural fit.
According to Forbes, 89% of hiring failures are a direct result of poor cultural fit. This means that finding a good cultural fit is incredibly important. It will save you time and a lot of money in hiring costs by ensuring you get a candidate that sticks with your company for the long term.
In this article we cover the top tactics for establishing a software engineer’s cultural fit.
Create a Cultural Fit Assessment
Adding a cultural fit assessment into your hiring process can help ensure you employ a software engineer that will thrive in your company.
To create an assessment, you must properly understand what your company is like to work for and what its values are.
For example, you could look at where your company stands on the Competing Values Framework, and use this a benchmark for finding candidates that are a good cultural fit.
If it is clear that a software engineer does not match well with your company, stop wasting time and look for other candidates. It will be more difficult for a person to adapt to your culture than to train a good cultural fit in the hard skills needed for the job.
Ask the Right Questions During the Interview
During interviews, most questions are focused on a candidate’s experience and training. Of course, it is important to learn that the candidate is competent with the coding languages you work with and possesses the other technical skills you require from them.
However, it is important to spend time during the interview to assess cultural fit. You must get to know a candidate, what their values are, and whether their personality will fit with your team.
Examples of questions you might ask include:
- Describe yourself.
- How do you spend your free time?
- Explain the type of work environment in which you flourish.
- What values are important to you?
- What work style do you prefer?
- Did you look at our company values? Which best align with your values?
- Why do you want to be a software engineer at our company?
Share Your Company Culture with Candidates
During every stage of the hiring process, you can take an opportunity to share some of your company culture. This allows software engineers to also decide if they think your company is the right fit for them.
List your values and company mission in the job description. This way, candidates will have a good idea of what your company is working towards from the start of the hiring process.
Share examples of what it is like behind the scenes in your company. Post employee experiences on your careers page and your social media. You can create videos, perhaps by interviewing engineering management or shadowing a member of your development team.
Sharing this kind of content gives candidates the chance to decide for themselves if they think they are a good fit for you. If they don’t like what they see, they will remove themselves from the selection process – a self-elimination process that saves time, money, and aggravation.
Let Candidates Meet Your Team
Consider adding peer interviews to your hiring process. Give candidates the chance to meet other software engineers on your team. They can ask questions to a peer, helping them to get a clearer picture of the company culture by talking to someone that works in the same job every day.
This also gives your current team members an opportunity to assess the potential hire. They can determine if they think their personality is a good fit and if they will work well with the team.
To Sum Up
Cultural fit is as important as job fit. When recruiting a software engineer you need someone with not only the qualifications and experience to do the job well, but the cultural fit to excel in the role and within their new team.
By following the above tactics, you can create a hiring process that will ensure you hire a software engineer that is a great cultural fit for your company.
For help recruiting your next software engineer, contact Loyal Source.