The survey* found that employees who felt they fit their role and the culture of their employer rated their productivity at 7.2 out of 10. This compares to just 5.3 out of 10 for those employees who felt they were a poor fit for both these factors. These findings clearly underline just how important it is to match employees with jobs they are happy with and a culture that suits their working style and personal values. Getting these elements wrong can have dire consequences for productivity and employee retention.
Workplace culture is becoming increasingly important to employees. They want to work in an environment where they are valued and trusted. This is shown by the results of the survey, where almost a third (32%) of employees said that they had left a job as the culture wasn’t what they expect it to be. If a workplace culture doesn’t suit employees, they are up to three times more likely to vote with their feet and leave the organisation.
Drilling down further into these results, these employees identified the approach of senior leaders, the behaviour of colleagues and everyday management as the key elements that defined how the culture differed to what they expected.
Employers are increasingly recognising that their culture has an important role to play when it comes to recruitment and retention but have struggled to clearly identify how to take it into account in their hiring process. In research conducted by ThriveMap last year**, 77% of employers admitted to just using gut feel when it came to assessing candidates for cultural fit. This new research shows that if employers used objective tools such as assessments to measure whether a candidate would thrive within the culture of their organisation, it would provide a powerful indication of whether they are likely to reach their full potential.
Chris Platts, CEO of ThriveMap said, “This research confirms that feeling ‘at home’ within an organisation has a direct impact on an employee’s productivity. Employers need to re-evaluate their hiring processes to objectively measure their culture and ensure they can accurately identify employees that will thrive within it. An effective hiring process needs to effectively assess for the 3Cs:
“Getting this right can have an enormously positive effect on employee retention, employee engagement and, ultimately, the overall success of the organisation,” Platts concludes.
*Survey carried on behalf of ThriveMap by One Poll in January 2019 with 1,000 full-time employees who’ve had at least two full-time jobs. A full report, Dreams v Reality: How well does recruitment today reflect job requirements and company culture? which details the complete findings of the survey can be downloaded here.
**Telephone research conducted by ThriveMap with 200 HRDs and other senior HR managers compiled in May 2018.
