Assessing a Company's Culture From the Outside
Guest Post by Nici Henningsen | People and Culture Leader at nh&a consulting
Why is company culture important?
When we are considering a role, we tend to head straight to the technical requirements on the job description to assess our ability to do the role and then we go on to explore salary if available, brand equity, any employee benefits listed and location to determine the potential fit.
Company culture is often overlooked in this lineup and for me it is the most important criteria for evaluating a job offer.
A definition of culture I like came from HBR; “Culture is an organisation’s DNA. It is the shared values, goals, attitudes, and practices that characterise a workplace. It is reflected in how people behave, interact with each other, make decisions, and do their work. It impacts everything — including your happiness and career”.
No matter what stage you are at in your career, know your own values and stay true to them. And ensure that the organisation in question matches these from the get go. Equally it is also important to know upfront what you are prepared to compromise and what is a deal breaker before you join a new employer. This information is not easy to find, so it's important you know how to look for it.
So how do you review a company’s culture?
Pre COVID, it used to be much simpler. You could sit in a company’s reception and quickly gain an assessment of the environment around you.
Now it is much harder given physical environments have changed and offices have adopted a hybrid model. This is still a worthy exercise, but it won’t give you all of the answers.
Explore every owned channel you can find…the company website, any company review you can find on google via Glassdoor and the like. Look at the company’s social media channels. What content are they sharing? What does it say about them? How much are they talking about their people and their values and work practices? How do they celebrate success? What is important to this organisation?
Run some market intelligence; Check your linked in connections to see if you have any people in common that have worked or are working at said company and ask them about what it is like to work there (this can often be best placed as a phone call as opposed to on email). If you don't know anyone at the company you may have connections who work with the company and can share some insights on what they are like as a partner business (to deal with). Research trade press for quotes from the leadership team during past announcements and times of change. Check industry employee survey platforms such as Mediai for the company's ranking in 'great places to work' lists.
Once you have an interview scheduled; generate your own questions to evaluate the culture of the organisation you are applying to. Ideally these will be derived from your values. For example if a work: life balance is important to you, ask?
What is your approach to flexibility
How autonomous are your employees
How do you measure success
If gender equality is important, ask about the company’s diversity and inclusion strategy.
Is diversity and inclusion important to you? What diversity and inclusion initiatives do you have in play at said organisation?
What is the gender balance of your Executive team?
If you are keen to be invested in, ask
How do you reward your employees?
And tease out the company’s employee benefits beyond what is on the job description; understand their policies and management style of the leaders.
Challenge them on how working parents manage the load.
Do they have a mentoring program in play?
And finally if you determine a great cultural fit and you get hired, work to be a cultural contributor and champion and hold your managers, colleagues and Executive accountable and share this with your community.
Nici Henningsen is a People and Culture Leader at nh&a consulting.
Get in touch today for further discussion and advice.
w: nicihenningsenandassociatesconsulting.com.au