Culture as a Criteria for Hiring

There is something particularly fascinating about companies with a fun culture that always brings a smile to my face.

These usually promote open imagination, champion fearless creativity and foster individuality among their employees. But what truly fascinates me is how seriously these companies take culture, to the point that [in most of the cases] it becomes palpable in everything they do: from the way they manage people, to the way they work and even the way they hire.

Imagine the following scenario:

You are being interviewed for a position in a company. Your resume is good and you've done your research properly. You're ready to rock. First you get interviewed by the hiring manager who proceed to ask you the standard 'fit related' questions [you know, to make sure you're the right one to get the job done]. Let's say that goes well and all you need now is to get interviewed by HR. But wait, once there, something interesting happens... Out of nowhere, you get a test full of odd questions like this one:

"In a scale between 1 and 10, how weird are you?

Well, as crazy as it might sounds, that's [sort of] what the guys at Zappos are doing.

They have a quite interesting hiring philosophy as I was able to learn after reading this fascinating interview on the NYTimes in which Tony Hsieh [Zappos chief executive] talked about leadership and management. A philosophy that test 'culture fit' as part of their hiring process.

I strongly agree with this thinking. Regardless of the discipline, culture must be a criteria for hiring people in the creative business. If a company wants to build an ideas culture, it is crucial to enlist people that fits that kind of environment. Or at least that would potentially do. This way you avoid the common scenario in which you need to continually fuel a creative culture within your company and foster one in which creativity is organically there.

I realize that it sounds quite simple but you will be surprise of how many companies fail to put this approach to practice. Hiring the right candidates is the starting point to build a strong culture of likeminded people, and also the foundation of any creative philosophy.

Check out the interview - it is quite good. And pay special attention to the portion in which he speaks about being more than just a leader within the organization. There is something fascinating about acting as an architect instead of a leader that's worth to observe and learn from. Something that is particularly pertinent to planners who constantly find themselves in situations where they have the opportunity to enable others to bring things to life; a sort of facilitator of ideas who help people at all levels in an organization to access their untapped creative thinking skills.

That makes me think about agencies. What about their recruiting process? Has this become just an act of blind faith instead of a hunt for culture alikes? Is creative expression a requirement across all disciplines?

Whatever the case might be, at the end of the day, I believe we all would agree that culture should growth from inside and become a common language among all members of the corporate community. Of course, [ideally] a language that people want to speak.