Cultural Fit & Self-Image of the HR Industry: The End of HR?

Cultural fit was the topic a while back a panel discussion of Süddeutschen Newspaper. Studies also show how important the topic is. Where does HR actually stand - and where is it HR in Future stand?

Reinhold Messner: Cultural Fit in extreme situations

I have been working on the subject of Cultural Fit for several years now. So I have, for example Reinhold Messner interviewedwho realized he would have been lost in his expiditionsif his Team not exactly the same Motivation like himself. Such extreme examples in particular show how important good teamwork is also in Companys at a hunt.

At the TALENTpro 2019 we had, organized by the Süddeutschen newspaper, a very exciting panel discussion on the subject of cultural fit. The whole thing was moderated by Raoul Fischer, my fellow panellists were Marcel Rütten and Christoph Athanas. In the end, our result looked like this: The culture and values ​​is for employers and Candidate extremely important, but depending on the perspective, different values ​​are in the foreground.

Digitization and humanity

The books on the subject (advertising)

That’s exactly what the 17 shows, by the way.”Recruiting Trends” study by the Center of Human Resources Information Systems (CHRIS) of the Universities of Bamberg and Erlangen-Nuremberg and the career portal Monster. Her motto this year: go digitization and humanity Hand in hand and bring the Industry continue.

As the CHRIS data are collected over such a long period of time, the study claims to be able to analyze developments over years and distinguish real trends from short-term modes.

Cultural Fit as an employer branding hype?

And as far as I'm concerned, one should urgently be careful that cultural fit is not pure Marketing-Topic becomes: As it becomes more and more difficult, Employees with the right hard skills, keyword technical development, employees are now being sought who can learn on the job and provide the necessary prerequisites for this.

And since this is a rather vague area with many potential blunders for many, it must now be as objective as possible Method here, so that the Recruiter not by gut feeling decide must. There was a really exciting discussion on Twitter recently about an interview in which a HR manager said that she does exactly that: decide based on gut feeling.

Cultural Fit - old wine in new bottles?

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In fact, the term Cultural Fit is actually nothing new, it's just old wine in new tubes. Because of course it sounds great to find the right employees.

The basic problem, however, are the values, by the way also a trend topic at the moment. So not the values ​​per se, but the way these values ​​are handled. All management consultants and companies talk about values ​​and how important they are.

What values ​​do companies represent?

But are companies even clear about which values ​​they represent? And do you even hit the nerve with the applicants with these values? Let's take a look at the latest figures in the CHRIS study.

Accordingly, cultural values ​​are particularly important for applicants. Top 3 are:

1. Mutual appreciation
2. Open communication culture
3. family-friendly

But: A maximum of half of the surveyed employees sees this as implemented by employers. By contrast, 86 percent of companies think that these topics are well implemented.

Different perception among applicants and employers

A look at the topic shows how different perceptions are Teamwork: A whopping 100 percent of companies think teamwork is important. Applicants do not think teamwork is important at all.

If you then take a closer look at which jobs are able to work in a team, then you have to take a look at the hotly contested market for IT specialists: many Developer prefer to work alone to get their stuff baked. So for which jobs is teamwork important? And for what empathy?

Employees in Spe: suitability for the job or for the team?

And often enough the suitability for the job is checked, e.g. in Assessment Centers - but the focus is somewhat less on whether the employees fit into the team at all. It is not for nothing that employee referral programs have been constantly expensive in recent years. In short: it absolutely is usefulHowever, as a company, you have to look for exactly the right employees clear do who or what exactly you are looking for.

Another one Problem is then how these values ​​are communicated at all - e.g. on the website or in Jobs. Most of the time, vague stories are told about values ​​such as the ability to innovate or employee orientation, and as an applicant you can’t imagine any of that. Often these beautiful formulations do not even correspond to reality.

Employer: respect spongy communication

Yes, even most job advertisements are so spongy that applicants can at best guess the values ​​and intentions. This is due to several factors:

• Too many cooks spoil the porridge
• Legal requirements
• Or politically incorrect values ​​- for example, Kindernothilfe has an easier time communicating positive values ​​that everyone contributes to, for example, a producer of canned meat.

But if job advertisements were more honest, many would also find suitable candidates.

What are you looking for: Companions for the journey to the sunny South or South Pole expedition?

Imagine that Reinhold Messner was looking for colleagues for a dangerous expedition to the South Pole or for a trip to the south - that would make a significant difference ...

It is possible, however, that something will inevitably change here as a result of automation: According to the CHRIS study, the machine readability of job advertisements is considered one of the most important digital topics of the future. 90,9 Percentage of companies see this as the most important feature of a job advertisement to appear in search masks such as Google Job Search in five years or to be found and processed by job-referrers.

Cultural fit and diversity - how does that work?

When it comes to cultural fit, the question of diversity always comes up. Appropriately, we hadn't touched on this topic in the discussion, but then we got out of it Audience asked about it.

You have to ask yourself the fundamental question: is this even desirable in companies? For example, a few years ago I was looking for interview partners on the subject of mixed Leadership – and how exactly this works in the company. Companies honored for mixed leadership also declined: "We're not ready yet."

Employee Referral Programs On the Rise: More of the Same?

In practice, it is easier for employers to adjust more of the same, so that a certain efficiency is bleached out, especially in times of crisis. Anyone who says otherwise, of course, has a good PR theme.

The increasing number of employee referral programs identified by the CHRIS study in many companies also shows that this particular type of cultural fit will be promoted in the future, no wonder, as it ensures that employees also fit into the team ,

New competition for the HR departments?

You can see from such developments: The classic HR departments are facing more and more competition. But so far only 4,5 percent of the HR Anxiety, soon to be automated away. But in my opinion they should have:

Seven out of ten companies (top 1.000 and IT) assume that JobRecommender will be used more and more frequently in the future. Also five out of ten Candidates like this development. As with other subject areas, however, there is a clear discrepancy between the expectation of what will generally prevail and one's own plans.

More Digital Career Consultants in Business?

For example, only one out of every ten of the top 1.000 companies and IT companies plans to set up a corresponding offer in the future.

Companies are also predicting a large increase in digital career advisors: at least one in ten top 1.000 companies states that they want to offer digital career advisors. In contrast to this, however, is the current development, which has been going on since 2016 light is declining, falling from 3,3 percent to 2,4 percent.

Crass mismatch: Employees distrust their own HR departments

Bad for HR only, according to the study, employees do not trust their own recruiting departments because they are the last people they talk about with their career plans. Much rather they talk to the recruiters of the competition.

This is where the alarm bells should go off for HR managers and perhaps the true task of HR lies in the future: recruiting and administration of employees will be automated more and more. On the other hand, HR managers have to go more and more into the departments and here the digital one change advance, promote innovative forms of work and take away employees' fears.

Conclusion: Where will human resources management stand in the future?

I don't see this last step in the HR scene. At the moment I'm still feeling too much about my own Status, finding personal roles and ultimately also maintaining vested interests are discussed, and yes, ultimately also complained about. Or why is it necessary to put entire events under the motto "Proud to be HR".

As far as the cultural fit is concerned, it is important for both sides that companies and employees fit together and it makes sense to develop mechanisms beyond gut feeling here. Nevertheless, one should not expect miracles from the Cultural Fit method.

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