Hi Samvedan, I totally agree with the last portion of teh sentence here - they are competent enough to get alternate employment. That is the fact, rest all are perceptions! No, no perception is not always reality. You have also stated that the new employee may be a cultural misfit in the organisation. Now how do we judge this while interviewing an employee or how do I judge this if i am a prospective candidate for the job? I am reproducing below an article downloaded several moths back. Again since my lap top crashed recently, i have no clue as to the site id. My apologies for that. This article might provide some insight into "culturally fit candidate" Quote A wrong hire can cause an organisation three times the annual salary of the individual and might also cause irreparable damage. Knowledgeable managers realise the criticality of hiring the right candidate who can be a ‘cultural fit’ in their existing teams. While many organisations conduct ‘cultural tests’ (to find out the character, aptitude and communication styles), there are other who hold negative interviews (pressure/no-win situations) to observe how candidates hold up under stress. The aim is obvious—every organisation has its exclusive culture and does not want to jeopardise it by hiring a misfit. Organisation culture is akin to the DNA of a human organism, which is unique and specific. These are characteristics that have made the organisation what it is. Each organisation’s culture has its own strengths and weaknesses. So when an organisation recruits people, it decidedly wants those who are talented and competitive notwithstanding and ‘fit’ into their culture. The organisations do not want any outsider to come and disturb the cultural fabric of the company—its values and ethics, work style, leadership patterns, philosophy of running the business and managing its people. In fact, they are always on a lookout for people who can enhance their culture. The concept of culture is very critical at the time of introducing organisation-wide changes. This is one of the reasons why many strategic planners now place as much emphasis on identifying strategic values as they do on the mission and vision of the company—for it hits the bottom line of the organisation. Disastrous consequences Look at the example of a manufacturing organisation, where the average age of people was above 35 years and they were rigid and stagnant in their style of working. The management hired an achiever from IT industry to introduce a new style in keeping with the times. He was known to have introduced drastic changes in the IT companies he had worked with. He was very aggressive in his working style and had also worked in the manufacturing industry earlier. The organisation had not checked the ‘cultural fit’ of the individual. He took charge as the head of operations and started introducing major changes. It led to a lot of opposition, which ultimately affected production and he was asked to leave. Another example of an organisation where, after the appointment of a senior person in the commercial function to deal with internal and external customers, complaints started coming in from existing customers about the products. This was a new phenomenon as earlier there had been no complaints. It was later realised that as the functionary was not behaving properly with the customers, as per his position, and was not sympathetic to their problems, the consumers were upset and they decided to protest by lodging product complaints. The organisation tried to salvage the situation by having counselling sessions with the individual but it did not help too much and he ultimately left the organisation. Had a temperament check taken place, either through a structured process or reference check, the company could have saved quite a bit of money and time. In another IT organisation a vigilant HR team was able to prevent a crises by turning down a candidate highly recommended by their project team. A couple of reference checks and found something fishy about the candidate’s attitude. Eventually HR rejected the candidate (who had an attitude problem) despite a lot of pressure from the project team. Two months later he joined a large company and was terminated for the inability to carry on with other team members and because of his attitude. Cultural tests Many organisations have started incorporating tests at the time of hiring to check the cultural fit of the candidates. These tests include: subjective assessment of the candidate at the time of hiring; reference checks with previous employer and professional associations; and psychometric tests (that include different psychological tests for different levels). The candidates are asked certain questions and judge the reactions to certain simulated situations which gives the answers to lead towards assessing cultural fitness. Test for temperament Among the most widely used tests globally are the SHL, the OPQ (Occupational Personality Questionnaire), the DISC (Drive, Influence, Steadiness, Compliance), the MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator), the PAPI (Personality and Preference Inventory) and the 16PF (16 Personality Factor) test. Temperament tests are most important for middle management levels onwards. It is critical for candidates being interviewed for managerial or leadership positions, and sometimes even project lead roles should be tested for temperament. Companies, however, need to be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the different types of tools and also do the analysis with care. Negative interviews Negative interviews are sometimes used to test how an individual will respond to a potential negative/ stress situation. These interviews, though less common, helps in evaluating the true nature of the candidate. Negative interviews are done to find out if the candidate is short-tempered or how he/she can handle stress. Instead of just asking, the interviewer will make the interview itself as stressful as possible. The best way for the candidate to handle such a situation would be to answer all questions in a positive and professional manner and pretend not to notice the interviewer’s attitude. In HR parlance this method is called a Stress Interview. All kinds of questions are asked to understand how a candidate will react to the stress and his ability to instantly answer the most intriguing questions. These interviews may be used to weed out individuals who react defensively or are easily influenced. Stress questions and techniques are also used in various interviews. The technique tests a candidate’s ability to be articulate and graceful under pressure. An example would be of an interviewer speaking quickly and aggressively, perhaps opening with “why should we hire you?”. The best interviewer And who is best equipped to take these interviews—the HR manager obviously. The reason is not difficult to guess. It is the HR manager who best understands the organisation culture and can identify which candidate can fit in the setup. While standardised tests can be used by HR managers with inputs from psychologists, certain higher level psychological tests for assessment of personality and other attributes, should be used only under strict surveillance and with proper training. It is not easy to find a perfect match between a company and an employee. The cultural, temperament and stress tests, can result in a win-win situation for both the organisation and the employee. Unquote Thanks Bala