Culture fit essential for personal productivity

Employees who feel they are a good fit for their role and the culture of their company are 36 percent more productive, claims a new report from ThriveMap (registration). The paper claims to reveal what a difference feeling like a natural fit for a job and organisational culture makes to employees. The survey of 1,000 people used in the report claims 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 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, the report concludes, so getting these elements wrong can have dire consequences for productivity and employee retention.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Three quarters of employers admitted to just using gut feel when it came to assessing candidates[/perfectpullquote]

Workplace culture is becoming increasingly important to employees, according to the survey. Almost a third (32 percent) of respondents 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 3 times more likely to vote with their feet and leave the organisation. 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 percent of employers admitted to just using gut feel when it came to assessing candidates for cultural fit.

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. Getting this right can have an enormously positive effect on employee retention, employee engagement and, ultimately, the overall success of the organisation.”