Corporate culture is the lifeblood of a company, it’s who you are. Crafting a strong corporate culture can be the difference in a company’s survival. An employee will work harder and fight for a company if they believe that that company will fight for them and if they believe in the organization as a whole. But where does corporate culture begin? That answer is simpler than most companies make it, recruiting. Recruiting is the seed from which your corporate culture grows and that includes how you treat candidates throughout the hiring process.
Really corporate culture comes down to values. What does your company value and how do you communicate that to recruits? If a recruit cannot figure out your company’s values during the interview process that’s a good sign that they are either not a good candidate or that your company has not done a sufficient job of communicating these values.
It’s also important to think about how you treat a candidate during the hiring process. You want to treat your potential employees with the same amount of respect as you do your current employees. The main tenant of this treatment is communication. How efficiently are you communicating with your candidates? Do they have a strong understanding of the likelihood of landing a position? Do they know how long the hiring process will take? How many interviews? What sort of background or employment history checks they can expect? Have you adequately communicated the salary and work expectations? These may seem like simple questions but they can make a huge difference in how your corporate culture is understood both internally and externally.
Let’s say that you hire this potential candidate and during the hiring process you sufficiently communicated all the above questions. Before that person even sets foot in your building as an official employee they already know that you have a strong corporate culture. They have already been treated well by your recruiters and know they can expect the same from their superiors and coworkers. By hiring a person in this manner, you have created an employee who is already indoctrinated with your corporate culture and will immediately start to foster it and make it even stronger.
Now, let’s say that someone goes through a strong hiring process but is not offered a job. Well, this person is also indoctrinated with your corporate culture even though they don’t work at your company. You’ve sent someone out into the world who was treated well by your organization and can pass along their positive experience with anyone who asks them about you. Imagine a world where even the people you don’t hire will say “they treated me really well and I know that company is a great place to work even though they didn’t hire me.” Now you’ve spread the good word about your organization to the world.
Every employee you have goes through the hiring process and every employee is a part of your corporate culture. By having a strong recruiting team who treats people well and imbues candidates with your corporate culture you can do the work of strengthening your brand before anyone gets to work. Corporate culture is your forest and hiring practices are your seeds.
Nexxt is a recruitment media company that uses today’s most effective marketing tactics to reach the full spectrum of talent – from active to passive, and everything in between. Learn more about hiring with Nexxt.
This article was written by Sam Rogal.
Sam Rogal is a writer and professional living in New York City. He has worked in the film and theater industry and graduated top of his class with a degree in Communications.