BE different

A cultural flight simulator would be nice.

In the training of a commercial airline pilot, a flight simulator is used. As a senior HR director in industry, I often wished I had a similar simulator for practicing in advance the integration of a new executive joining the company.

In training a commercial airline pilot, a flight simulator is used. This helps to experience the situation before the actual reality hits – that is manoeuvring and landing a hefty 400-ton piece of equipment through the air at high speeds with a few hundred passengers on board!

As a HR director in industry, I often wished I had a simulator for experiencing in advance the integration and fit of a new executive joining the company. But no such simulator exists, so how do we best assess the cultural challenges of transferring an executive from one company environment to a different one?

In executive recruitment one side of the equation is very well served – that of candidate sourcing and analysis. Here there is a great deal of intellect and support on offer. Search firms extensively source, screen and negotiate with candidates, psychometric profiling can give insights into candidates’ behavioural preferences and the hiring manager can spend a great deal of time in discussions with potential candidates in the search of a perfect fit.

However, the other side of the equation, the ability of the company to clearly and rationally identify its own cultural ‘profile’ for that particular role, is much less well served. It is true that there is usually some discussion when defining the candidate brief, but I would argue that this important aspect is, by comparison, under represented and can be significantly improved by a clear and rational analytical approach, particularly when aided by survey techniques.

Even a cursory glance at the literature on the subject reveals that a higher than expected proportion of executives struggle, or even fail, in the first eighteen months of new employment. The reason usually cited is not their professional skills base and abilities, but their ‘cultural fit’. An internet search will not only reveal particular horror stories, but also a string of depressing data about potential ‘executive longevity’ (or not, as the case may be) in a new position. This is significant, and often means that the behaviours and expectations of the new hire and the hiring company are at odds with each other, maybe in areas such as decision making, communication, accountability, clarity of objectives, access to information etc. These are the types of processes that often determine ‘cultural fit’.

So what is this ‘cultural fit’ and how is it measured? There are many definitions of company culture, often described as the ‘way of doing things around here’. However, an objective and specific assessment of current culture in relation to a new executive hire or role is more of a rarity. If this assessment were to exist more readily, it could inform vital hiring aspects such as seeking evidence of fit at interview, comparing and matching the candidates, assisting effective hiring decisions and subsequently supporting the executive in the early days of employment to minimise risk of failure.

What can be done to help define this cultural fit? My experience, from many years’ experience of hiring executives, is to consider key relationships that drive the culture fit in four dimensions, all of which need satisfying for the new executive to succeed culturally.  These dimensions need addressing when joining a new company, or even a markedly different role within the same company:-

• Senior Team – building vital relationships and accessing important strategic dialogue.
• Staff – introducing a new leadership/management style whilst retaining team performance.
• Stakeholders-Internal - establishing peer group relations and understanding dependencies.
• Stakeholders-External – identifying and engaging external parties with a critical impact on the role.

 Cultural challenges such as building relationships, managing expectations and management and communication styles in these four dimensions are major contributors to successful assimilation, productivity and longevity of the new hire.

As a positive example, in some roles there may be a very high role challenge of managing multiple influential external stakeholders, but the required support mechanisms are in place through regular stakeholder meetings, good relationships, aligned stakeholders etc. In a less positive example, the new executive may have the challenge of dependence on an internal peer group to achieve key objectives in the role, but lacking support because the peer group does not work particularly effectively as a team, so information flow is sporadic, thereby potentially creating a cultural barrier.

Ultimately, the new executive hire only has a unit of 100% of their focus and energy to allocate to the four dimensions, so objective assessment and prioritisation of the challenges and support in each of these will assist both executive and hiring managers. There is also a secondary advantage of giving the new hire a strong message that the company chooses to spend some time and resource on the assessment of its own environment associated with the role. This, in itself, can promote a good cultural fit and a very positive message to the new hire.

Many companies spend much time and effort on ‘on-boarding’, whilst in others, perhaps less well-resourced, it may be left more to chance. Either way, the opportunity to have this more objective data about the new hire’s direct cultural environment is often a great advantage in promoting early productivity, positive support and retention. All of these aspects, in turn, generate financial benefit for the company, either through cost savings or additional productivity as well as better continuity.

In assessing ‘culture fit’, we need to be more rational about assessing the new hire’s environment, which is where the ‘dimensions’ above are helpful. Once we have this, we can compare the candidate with their environment and identify areas of cultural strengths and development ‘gaps’. This is our cultural ‘flight simulator’, matching the great work done in candidate sourcing and assessment with this rational approach to assessing the new hire’s potential work environment, thereby achieving the optimal ‘cultural fit’.

Where does this information about the new hire’s work environment best come from? Undoubtedly the best source is from the hiring team themselves and relevant colleagues. By asking the right questions to a range of stakeholders, a unique perspective on the cultural challenges of the specific role can be achieved. It does, however, need to be a well-managed and orderly process to identify key themes and retain impartiality, so a structured survey approach is by far the most appropriate format, which also reinforces the analytical approach.

A clearer assessment of your company culture relevant to the new executive hire will strongly inform the comparison between candidate and role, complementing the essential work of search consultants, informing your selection, on-boarding and executive support, and ultimately having a successfully integrated new executive hire and investment. This is your cultural ‘simulator’ in action – enjoy the trip!

Alan Garmonsway