While a job candidate may look great on paper, it’s perhaps equally important to know if they align within your organization’s culture?
Cultural fit is one of the most important things hiring professionals need to evaluate for in a job interview, but it’s also one of the most challenging to identify. Without working with an applicant, or knowing them beyond the professional space, determining whether an applicant is a good fit for the team can be very difficult.
But, asking the right interview questions can help guide you closer (in addition to exploring talent assessment solutions to ensure unbiased and objective evaluations).
Keep scrolling to learn several unique interview questions that hiring professionals are using today to evaluate for cultural fit within their organization.
Making the right hire starts with a structured screening and selection process. Luckily, our guide has tons of free tips for people leaders like you to learn how to build a process that gets real results — the best-fit candidates for your company. Check it out.
Table of contents
1. “If I walk by your desk at 5:30 p.m., what will I see?”
Their answer will reveal their view of work and thoughts on what a workplace should be like. You can evaluate that against your culture.
Does everyone stay until 9 p.m. to work? Is everyone gone at 4:30 p.m. to beat traffic? Is there a startup feel where everyone works remotely but all the time?
If the candidate says, “I’m long gone,” you know how they stack against your culture. If they say, “I’m working hard and ordering takeout dinner,” you know whether they fit in or are an outlier.
I’ve gotten answers ranging from “I’d be organizing my desk for the next morning” to “You’d see my phone forwarded so I can work from home in the evening.”
2. “What are you most passionate about?”
What ignites excitement and fire in your heart? The common denominator of success and happiness is painfully simple — it’s our fuel of purpose.
A life fueled by a purpose of passion will always create more passion. Passion begets passion; positivity begets positivity. So, an interviewee who can identify their passion is one step closer to being able to work toward — and for — that passion, which will, in turn, yield happiness and, ultimately, success.
3. How do you manage communication with coworkers?
This is an excellent culture fit interview question.
How an individual communicates to others says a lot about their personality. With culture fit, matching or similar communication styles ensure accuracy, and that everyone stays on the same page. If one’s communicative style is too far a departure from the overall company culture, they may not be the best candidate for the role.
4. “If we were stuck, what would you do?”
I also ask myself this question throughout the interview process: If I were traveling on business with this individual and we got stuck at an airport for an unexpected 12-hour layover with nowhere to go, would it be a comfortable experience or a nightmare?
When the going gets tough — and it does within any organization — I need to know that each one of my employees has enough of a comfort zone with whom we can weather any obstacle that comes our way.
As a scaling firm, we experience growing pains and need people who reflect our values and with whom we are comfortable navigating any hurdles.
5. “Walk me through your perfect work day.”
This question allows candidates to highlight what they value in a workplace. Do they prefer to work independently or with teams? How does socializing fit into their idea of working?
Most interviews are structured to assess a candidate’s competence for the role and how they will fit in from a qualification standpoint. This question provides a glimpse into the employees’ values, which we can compare to our company’s.
