Glassdoor recently published their annual list of highest rated CEOs for 2017 and I have always been blown away with the employee's reviews of these companies and their CEOs. These organization set the gold standard for creating a great organization to work for, but there is a consistent thread among all the companies on the list, irrespective of their sector, industry or location.
Getting a plus-90% approval rating from your employees is surely an achievement since it is not easy being the figurehead of a company especially a multinational company where everything that goes right—and wrong—tends to fall on your head. A lot of CEOs will love to get half of that rating, so this begs the question, what's their secret? What are they doing to create that great place to work for their employees.
Two words Culture Fit
Asked yourself these questions and answer honestly:
How do you recruit new employees? Is it based on the company culture or do you simply look for the candidate who has the best resume or interviews well?
Does your team live up to the values of the company?
What are the values of your company?
Do you have culture fit at your company?
One of the major factors coming out of Glassdoor list of top rated CEOs is their ability to attract and retain their best people in their company. There are many contributing factors, but culture stood out simply because “when you get the culture the right, everything else takes care of itself” according to Tony Heish.
All the employees reviewed from Glassdoor rank culture as one and in many instances, the most important contributing factor at their company, but how do you determine who fits into the organizational culture. Take a look at the model below; very simple, but a very effective one that will help you manage and lead your team better to achieve culture fit. Let's look at each one of the elements in the model in detail; while you are reading, make your mental notes to determine where your employees fall within the model.
Star Employees ( high culture fit, high performance)
The most important thing a CEO must get right is developing a great team. So when you actually land great employees, especially senior hires, you have to do whatever it takes to retain them.
When Sheryl Sandberg joined Facebook in March 2008, Facebook generated $272 million in revenue, loss $56 million with a workforce of 450 employees. Last year Facebook brought in $27.6 billion in revenue, with $10.2 billion in net income with more than 17,000 employees worldwide.
Zuckerberg indicated that Hiring Sheryl Sandberg was one of the smartest business decisions he ever made. When you have employees who fit your culture and performs at a very high level, you have a star employee. Sheryl Sandberg fits that bill perfectly for Facebook. As a matter of fact a lot of CEOs are now trying to find their "Sheryl" the phase has become somewhat synonymous in silicon valley.
These employees are your best fit. They perform at a very high level, they understand the purpose and seek to make everyone around them better and set the example for everyone to follow.
With these employees you must work hard to retain but be mindful that you need to make sure your stars have enough on their plate to stay fully engaged — but not so much that they get burned out (we will expand on this below). And you need to “offer positive feedback” — but not in ways that are counterproductive to the person’s growth and development.
Related Article: Be The Catalyst To Transform Your Organization Culture
Bad Fit ( low culture fit, low performance)
If you have an employee that is not living up to the values of the company and their performance is low, as the CEO or manager what will you do?
Take my example, when I worked in a bookstore for about 3 months, I was cooped up in this small store from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm with every passing second feeling like someone stabbing me with a knife in my chest. After the first month on the job, I knew this was a bad fit given my personality, and this affected my performance on the job significantly.
I was eventually let go, and at that point I was jobless but it was the best thing that ever happens to me because I knew if I stayed, I was only frustrating myself and preventing the bookstore from achieving its objectives.
If you have employees who are clearly not a good fit and performing badly on the job, unfortunately, you made a hiring mistake. As such, you are not doing anyone any good by holding on to someone who is clearly not a right fit for the company.
Remember your star employees. In a situation like this, you may get tempted to pass on extra work to these employees. But you run the risk of these employees getting burnout and leaving.
You will spend too much time with an employee who is a bad fit and unconsciously neglect the employee that fits the bill. You will lose the star, and retain the employee who is not helping the company and in the process, create a toxic organizational culture.
Coachable (High culture fit, Low performance)
This group of employees is tricky because they have potential, fit into the culture of the company, but they are not performing at the level you expect. As a CEO, manager or supervisor you can do one of two things:
1. Let the employee go
2. Coach these employees
I will lean more to coaching these employees because of their potential and in the long run, these employees can become your stars.
For example, Kawhi Leonard was drafted by the Indiana Pacers with the 15 pick and traded to the San Antonio Spurs. Leonard was an instant fit with the culture at Spurs however, his performance was just above average. Gregg Popovich saw potential in this young player, provided all the support for his development and now Leonard is one of the best players in the NBA today.
Everyone develops at different points and as the leader you can spend time with this group of employees providing motivation and encouragement, knowing that eventually, they will develop to become your star employees. Now you will have to determine how long this development stage will take and what systems you need to implement to give these employees every chance to succeed.
Change or Leave ( Low culture fit, High performance)
Now, this is the group where most leaders go wrong. You have someone who performs at the highest level in the organisation, brings in tons of revenue for the company but is a terrible fit for your culture. what do you do? Have you ever been in this kind of situation before? What did you do?
This one is hard for some leaders but for other leaders who value and cherish their organization culture, they will not hesitate to dismiss these employees. Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh said that the company has dismissed people whose values are not aligned with the company’s values. In others words, Zappos is willing to higher and fired people base on the company culture whether or not you are a high achiever. Some companies are fanatical about their organizational culture because they understand when you get the culture right, all the rest of stuff takes care of itself.
If you find yourself in this situation, where you have someone who works extremely well but does not fit into the culture of the company. You can either have a sincere talk with that employee and if the problem persists and you value your culture, that employee may have to leave because it will lead to all kind of problems at the company.
To recruit the best talent at Facebook and to ensure cultural fit, Mark Zuckerberg said he created a test for himself for any direct hire he needed to make. "I've adopted this hiring rule, which is that you should never hire someone to work for you unless you would work for them in an alternate universe," he said.
Which doesn't mean that you should give them your job, but if the tables were turned and you were looking for a job, would you be comfortable with working for this person?
Glassdoor top rated CEOs understand that culture fit is the glue that holds an organization together. It's a key trait to look for when recruiting. The result of poor culture fit due to turnover can cost an organization between 50-60% of the person’s annual salary, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). But it is important that the company clearly identify its purpose, values, vision, and mission to clearly defined the organizational culture. If the company doesn't have a shared sense of purpose, it will be extremely difficult to have any kind of culture fit.
So asked yourself these questions again:
How do you recruit new employees. Is it based on the company culture or do you simply look for the candidate who has the best resume or interviews well.
Does your team live up to the values of the company
what are the values of your company.
Do you have culture fit at your company
Share your thoughts.
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