How Do You Know if A New Hire Does Not Share Your Company’s Values?

60% of recruiters say culture fit is of utmost importance in hiring decisions. ⁽¹⁾

When a new hire does not meet your company values it will often show up in the inability of the employee to autonomously achieve the required position’s outcome. Drucker a leading management thinker states “a lack of values is a real obstacle to getting things done”. (2)

Some companies, including Zappos and Amazon have created Pay to Quit programs that give new hires a financial benefit for quitting if they discover that they are not happy with the job or the company culture. Neither Zappos nor Amazon are pressuring new personnel to leave their jobs, they just realise the importance of shared values. If the values are not shared, then it is better for both parties to part ways.

The presence of shared values in the workplace can have a surprisingly profound impact on productivity and profits. It’s one of 14 key drivers of employee engagement. _⁽³⁾

Gallup has recently conducted its 10th global meta-analysis of the relationship between employee engagement and performance across 112,312 business and work units in 276 organizations across 54 industries with employees in 96 countries.

When comparing top-quartile with bottom-quartile engagement business units and teams, Gallup found:
• 10% in customer loyalty/engagement
• 23% in profitability
• 18% in productivity (sales)
• 14% in productivity (production records and evaluations)
• 18% in turnover for high-turnover companies (those with more than 40% annualized turnover)
• 43% in turnover for low-turnover companies (those with 40% or lower annualized turnover)
• 64% in safety incidents (accidents)
• 28% in shrinkage (theft)
• 81% in absenteeism
• 58% in patient safety incidents (mortality and falls)
• 41% in quality (defects)
• 66% in wellbeing (thriving employees)
• 13% in organizational citizenship (participation) (4)

According to Mark Murphy, founder and CEO of Leadership IQ, 89% of new hire failures are due to attitude, while just 11% are due to a lack of skill. ⁽⁵⁾

All candidates need the core technical skills to succeed, but the best candidates are highly self-aware and whose personal values align with your company’s values. One of the things that separates good leaders from great ones is the ability to recognize when values are out of alignment and to act upon that information. ⁽⁶⁾

(1) Robert Glazer (2017) https://hbr.org/2017/09/as-your-company-evolves-what-happens-to-employees-who-dont
(2) Marco and Jennifer Robison (2020) https://www.gallup.com/workplace/327521/company-integrity-leaders-set-tone.aspx
(3) https://emplify.com/blog/shared-values
(4) Jim Harter (2020) https://www.gallup.com/workplace/321965/employee-engagement-reverts-back-pre-covid-levels.aspx
(5) Robert Glazer (2017) https://hbr.org/2017/09/as-your-company-evolves-what-happens-to-employees-who-dont
(6) Marco and Jennifer Robison (2020) https://www.gallup.com/workplace/327521/company-integrity-leaders-set-tone.aspx