We spend almost one third of our time on our jobs in the organization we choose to work. It is like having a second marriage that needs understanding and commitment to give happiness and growth just like the real marriage. High percentage of stable arranged marriages of Asia have long been seen with awe by the western world and almost always came out as the result of matching culture and upbringing. However, cultural matching in a job is rarely given a thought by HR Gurus where the primary criterion usually is matching the skills. This is coming out to be one of the key factors in rising attrition in organizations.
SCIKEY found that almost all the job seekers try to understand about the company through the freely available information on the Internet. Most of them stumble upon sites like Glassdoor that has reviews and comments from existing and ex-employees. Unfortunately, such sites almost always have a lot of comments coming from disgruntled employees who may be a misfit or underperformers in their own organizations and tend to put blame of their own shortcomings on the organizations they work. Their outpour may be at best a negative view about the company if not completely a ‘Fake News’, but certainly not a representation about the company culture.
It therefore becomes very important for a job seeker to ask right questions before making opinion about the company that they might join. The right questions completely depends upon what the job seeker is looking for in their career. A professional who is looking for growth in career as their key focus should be looking at finding out the growth pattern of the company, the opportunities that the company provides, the learning that they will have while working there and the kind of leaders who will be there to mentor them.
Similarly, a job seeker looking for stable lifestyle should be looking for working hours, travel time, working late culture or working from home culture, vacation rules and the level of accountability that comes to them while they perform their jobs. Women employees who face additional challenge of taking care of their families in addition to work may look for the openness of the company to give family time off, freedom to choose to work from home and understanding bosses beyond the general company policies.
Almost every job seeker should be asking about the company policies as it clearly defines the company cultural intents. Talking to existing and ex-employees of that company will help in getting to understand more about the company. However the most important of all is to understand about the company founders and top leadership. The culture of the company is always set by them that percolates down to last person. If the founders and leaders of the company excite you, rest everything can be put in second place.
SCIKEY research has found that employees who resonate with the company culture would generally remain in the company for much longer. Since companies do not have mechanism to find the cultural matching of the jobseeker and their company, the onus lies on the job seekers to do their home-work before they choose their employers. Such a marriage has a greater chance to last long and last happy.
