How to evaluate a company’s culture before executing it? – Health Director
This fitness director has been working lately in a company where the promotion procedure is opaque and where his boss is not very assertive. If they take action, they’d like to have more transparency and leadership at their next workplace. But how do you really get to know a What is the corporate culture before painting there?
Company culture means transparency and leadership support for this health care director, but you might prioritize different criteria – collegial support, overall team spirit, company mission. There are many factors that make up a company’s culture. Therefore, in order to uncover a company’s culture in a way that is useful to you, you’ll need to define what culture means to you. (Start with this list of 40 factors to help decide your next career move).
Next, you want to know how you will measure your maximum vital criteria. For example, if transparency is vital, does it mean pay transparency or transparency about company strategy, monetary status, changes in control, and/or anything else?Are you referring to opportunities for visibility with senior executives, organized day-to-day check-in, consistent adoption of worker suggestions, and/or anything else?If you associate a company’s culture with its mission, what missions do you find useful?
During the hiring process, you’ll have a chance to ask questions, so your interviewers comprise one source of information for uncovering company culture. That said, you’re still selling yourself during interviews, so most of your questions should focus on the nature of the job and how you can best contribute. When you do ask about company culture, you can’t probe and risk sounding argumentative. Until you’re hired, you need to always appear enthusiastic about joining.
Try to find other people outside of the hiring process and preferably friendly to you, so you can speak frankly. Talking to others who have already left the company can reveal even more information: treating negative court cases with a healthy dose of skepticism since, after all, they are former employees. Consider the person’s role within the company so that you can assess the relevance of your ideas to where you will work. Also, try to understand why you left so you can evaluate how goals they are.
Finally, tap into published sources, such as Glassdoor or media coverage. Look at company rankings, such as Best Places To Work, where articles might go into detail about what different work environments are like. Your alma mater, especially if you went to a business school, might curate information on different employers.
Whatever you uncover about a company culture, remember that you affect the culture once you join. If you join in a management role, you can change the culture for your immediate team. Even as an individual contributor, you influence culture in the way you collaborate with colleagues, how you communicate with senior leaders and by getting involved in firmwide initiatives.
As you dig into a company’s culture, you’ll inevitably hear critical feedback. Don’t be too quick to dismiss a prospective job (the latest job trends data shows a cooling market!). If you hear mixed reviews on culture, remember that you may be able to find a supportive tribe once you get there, or your immediate department might not suffer the same drawbacks as elsewhere in the company, or you can try to effect a change from the inside.
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