Corporate Culture: What Questions to Ask to Insure You’re The Right Fit
During the interview process, the candidate will often want to know about the company’s culture. Who wouldn’t want to know more about the company’s beliefs and behaviors? Corporate culture is implied and can develop organically over time as new employees are hired; they help build it.
The question most often asked around culture is “how would you define the culture in the company” or “what is the company culture?” The candidate listens carefully to the answer hoping the response is what they are looking for. To get a good sense, you might ask 2 people the same question to see if they say the same thing. The response is “the culture is open communication, collaborative, fun and value family and life balance.” Perfect! All the things I am looking for in my next role.
You get hired and after several months, the culture is not what you were told. Has that happened to you?
My belief is the right questions were not asked during the interview. If you really want to understand what the company culture really is, you need to ask more courageous questions. What I mean by that is, behavioral question that requires the interviewer to give you specific examples that demonstrated the behavior and traits of the culture. After all they are asking you behavior questions to help them determine if you are a fit. I believe strongly that YOU have the same right to ask behavior questions to help you determine if the culture is what they are saying it. As I mentioned, most people ask, “Can you describe your culture?”
I am encouraging you to ask more courageous questions, so let me give you a couple of examples:
Mission and values:
Q: What is the best way to describe what the company stands for? How is this demonstrated in the workplace?
Q: In one sentence, how would you describe working for your company?
Q: How does your organization support and demonstrate your top 3 values you stated in your mission statement?
Fun:
Q: Can you describe what a fun activity looks like in your company?
Approachability:
Q: You mentioned your style of management is being approachable, can you give me an example of what that means to you?
Q: Can you give me an example of how one of your staff members approached you on an issue?
You might be thinking, I would never ask these questions. I know they are not your typical ones and it does take courage, confidence and practice. Think of your number one work value and develop a question that helps you understand if the culture is right for you.
In your next interview, what will YOUR courageous question be?