How to Effectively Recruit for Behavioural and Cultural Fit

Making the decision to recruit is often a big decision, especially for small businesses or close knit teams. Everyone wants to hire someone who can not only do the work, but also gel with others and align with the company values. So, when you’ve made the decision to go to market, your understanding is your new team member will bring value to the business, get along with other team members and continue fulfilling their potential.

In a nutshell, this is the underlying principle of hiring for cultural fit. Determining a candidate’s overall fit is the key to successful HR, finance and accounting recruitment. However, this involves evaluating a range of characteristics – not just skills or personality.  

Here’s our guide to recruiting for cultural fit, and to support you to make the right selection decision, whatever your requirements.  

What is Behavioural and Cultural Fit? 

Before jumping into hiring strategies, let’s define what we mean by behavioural and cultural fit. 

Behavioural fit refers to a candidate’s alignment with the expectations of the role, such as their problem-solving approach, interpersonal skills and ability to adapt to challenges.  

Cultural fit, on the other hand, speaks to how well a candidate aligns with the mission, values and work culture of your company.  

To consider why each version of ‘fit’ matters for employers, think about what happens when you don’t hire the right people for roles: disengaged employees, increasing dysfunction within the team and increased staff turnover – all which can hamper business performance. The consequences of a poor fit are potentially far-reaching and expensive for organisations.  

Misconceptions about Cultural Fit 

Homogeneous Hiring 

There is a persistent misconception that ‘cultural fit’ is a code phrase for ‘candidates who look and sound like me’ – definitely a pitfall to avoid! Hiring managers can sometimes fall victim to choosing people like themselves. For example, people who attended the same school, grew up in the same town, are of the same ethnicity, age or gender, have the same hobbies or interests, or share other personal attributes. Yet these factors have no bearing on someone’s ability to work effectively.  

Hiring people who are similar to you and your colleagues risks creating a homogenous team, which in turn can negatively impact diversity and inclusion metrics and lead to poor quality decisions that often go unchallenged.

Focusing only on personality 

As anyone with years of HR, finance and accounting recruitment experience can relate, an individual’s personality is not an accurate gauge of their ability to perform well in a role. Your team may be full of extroverts, but that soft-spoken candidate might just be the best HR business partner who has ever worked for you! 

Define Your Company’s Core Values and Culture 

Without a framework in place, the concepts of ‘behavioural fit’ and ‘cultural fit’ can quickly slide into subjective territory, where hiring managers only rely on their gut feel about candidates. This is a recipe for inconsistent or poor-quality hires. That’s why it’s crucial to articulate your organisation’s culture before the recruitment process starts.  

If your organisation doesn’t have a clear understanding of how the company culture is experienced by its employees on a day-to-day basis, it’s tempting to rely on what’s written in your values and mission statement, which isn’t the full picture.  

To better understand your organisation’s actual workplace culture, consider these questions: 

• What do employees say about working here when they’re being candid? 

This helps you uncover the unspoken norms and sentiments that shape the day-to-day experience of your employees. Gathering feedback from anonymous surveys, exit interviews and informal conversations can help you get accurate, ‘real-life’ responses.  

• What behaviours are consistently rewarded or recognised within the organisation?

This highlights the values that are truly prioritised in practice, as opposed to those listed in your mission statement. 

• How do decisions get made here?

Asking this question helps reveal the operational dynamics of your workplace culture. For example, is decision-making collaborative, hierarchical, or siloed? 

• What types of people tend to succeed or fail in this company?

Identifying the common traits among those who thrive (or struggle) can provide insights into the cultural expectations and pressures within your organisation. 

• How do we handle conflict or setbacks? 

This question reveals your organisation’s approach to challenges, whether it’s open and constructive, or perhaps more defensive and avoidant. 

• What do our physical and digital workspaces say about us?

Whilst a ping pong table in the kitchen isn’t the true emblem of an organisation’s culture, consider how the design of your office and the communication tools you use reflect values like openness or formality. 

As you might have guessed, these questions encourage a fair amount of introspection, but when answered with honesty, they will give you an accurate compass for recruitment.   

Interview Questions to Uncover Behavioural Fit 

We recommend using structured interviews to identify the most suitable candidates. Not only does this approach provide consistency, it ensures the recruitment process is fair and mitigates unconscious bias. 

Here are examples of behavioural and situational interview questions that can reveal how a candidate will likely respond to typical workplace challenges: 

• Describe a time when you faced a significant challenge at work. How did you handle it? 

This assesses a candidate’s problem-solving skills and resilience under pressure. 

• Tell me about a time you had to collaborate with a difficult colleague. How did you approach the situation? 

This helps you evaluate a candidate’s interpersonal skills and conflict resolution abilities. 

• Can you give an example of a time when you went above and beyond your job responsibilities? 

This type of question measures a candidate’s proactivity and dedication to their work. 

• How do you approach learning a new skill or tool required for your job? 

Looks at their adaptability and commitment to self-improvement. 

• Describe a situation where you had to prioritise multiple tasks. How did you decide what to focus on? 

Test a candidate’s organisational and time-management skills. 

• Give an example of a time you received constructive criticism. How did you respond? 

This assesses a candidate’s openness to feedback and growth mindset. 

Interview Questions to Identify Cultural Fit  

These questions are more open-ended and will provide you with in-depth insights into candidates when recruiting for cultural fit. 

• What attracted you to our company, and how do you see yourself contributing to our mission?

This will highlight how much alignment a candidate has with your organisation’s values and goals. 

• Describe your ideal work environment. What makes it productive and enjoyable for you?

 This explores a candidate’s compatibility with your workplace culture. 

• How do you usually celebrate team successes or milestones?

Asking this helps you evaluate whether the candidate’s collaborative style aligns with your team dynamics. 

• What motivates you in your work, and how does that align with our company’s vision?  

 Ask this to determine a candidate’s self-motivation and values. 

• Tell me about a company culture you enjoyed in the past. What made it a good fit for you?  

Reveals the candidate’s previous experiences with workplace culture and how those align with your organisation. 

• How do you usually handle disagreements or differing opinions in a team setting?

This determines if the candidate’s approach to conflict will meet the company’s expectations for communication and respect. 

Get Impartial Support from a HR, Finance and Accounting Recruitment Specialist 

Asking these interview questions gives you a well-rounded insight into a candidate’s potential fit for your organisation. By following these guidelines, you can look beyond surface appearances and attributes to understand a candidate’s values and how they work with others, and ensure your next hire fits the team perfectly!

As experienced HR, Finance and Accounting Recruitment specialists, we have first -hand experience in supporting businesses to identify behavioural and cultural fit. Getting it right is the difference between success and failure, and can have a big impact on your team. When you need to hire accountants, finance leaders or HR professionals, we can guide you every step of the way. Contact us today for support in finding your next team member or colleague.