Increased regulatory oversight in the natural products industry is impacting the search for employees to fill key technical positions. We're seeing more nutraceutical recruiting efforts aimed at the pharmaceutical industry, where knowledge of regulatory processes is very strong. This approach is just fine, as long as you're paying close attention to cultural fit issues during the nutraceutical recruiting process. When you hire talent from companies with different corporate cultures, you need to carefully assess whether that employee will be able to fit in with your particular culture.
Studies show that one of the main reasons for employee turnover and new hire failure is a poor match between the company and the individual. I believe that 50% of the hiring equation is cultural fit. Some think it's even more critical. "Culture isn't just one aspect of the game, it is the game," wrote CEO Lou Gerstner, widely credited with turning around IBM.
Just what is corporate culture? Basically, it describes " the set of shared, taken-for-granted, implicit assumptions that a group holds and that determines how it perceives, thinks about and reacts to its environment," wrote Arizona State University's W.P. Carey School of Business management professor Angelo Kinicki. Put another way, it's the attitudes, beliefs, values, work habits and experiences of an organization.
How can identify your organizational culture? One approach is to look at various categories that describe your work environment and see where your organization falls. Consider these characteristics:
- Work pace - intense or casual
- Degree of focus on long vs. short-term goals
- Management communication style with staff
- Competition vs. cooperation
- Collaboration vs. individuality
- Creative vs. analytical
- Control vs. flexibility
Another approach used by management experts is called the "competing values framework." This method analyzes corporate values along two axes. The horizontal line assesses whether companies are internally or externally focused. The vertical line looks at the degree of flexibility or control/stability. Placed together, the axes create four quadrants that can be used to describe four cultural styles.
· Clan - Flexible and internally focused; emphasize collaboration and teamwork; invest in employee development and empowerment to create high morale.
· Hierarchy - Internally focused with more emphasis on stability; process orientation to achieve control; priority placed on efficiently run organization.
· Adhocracy - More flexible style with external focus; primary goals are to create, be adaptable and agile; emphasize innovation.
· Market - External focus with greater emphasis on employee control and stability; desires to compete, is customer-driven, prioritizes productivity, market share and profitability.
Let's say your organization is like the adhocracy style above. It's entrepreneurial, innovative and freewheeling in terms of worker flexibility and management structure. Your nutraceutical recruiting effort is directed toward someone out of the pharmaceutical sector to run your quality control and regulatory departments. One of your candidates comes from a 100-year-old company that is highly structured and doesn't allow casual attire or virtual work arrangements. She has the skill-set that you've been looking for. However, make sure you take the time to explain your culture or, even let her spend the day participating in team meetings or shadowing an employee. Then ask the candidate if she thinks she could be comfortable with your company's style; and assess whether you think she could fit in effectively.
The bottom line? Make sure you first fully understand your own company culture so you can determine which candidates will fit in and which will struggle. We can help you navigate this tricky process. Having difficulty finding the right candidate for your open position?
