When it comes to interviewing new employees, few terms are bandied about as often—and misunderstood as much—as the elusive “culture fit.”

Some hiring managers interpret culture fit as people that they could see as future friends. But that’s not what it means at all. A strong company culture is simply the way that the team works together toward’s the company’s stated goals. 

Adding some culture fit interview questions into the hiring process can help you to improve employee happiness and decrease turnover in the long run. Here’s how to approach it.

Defining Company Culture

To hire for company culture, you must first understand what the term means. Culture includes the company values, beliefs, and protocols that govern the work environment. It is comprised of all the little procedures, habits, how-to’s, and expectations that an organization abides by on a daily basis. In a nutshell, it’s the how behind the company’s why. 

Communication methods, meeting styles, core values, and general attitudes toward work are all part of the overall culture. With such a broad definition, culture fit can be difficult to gauge, especially when you’re simply reading a resume. That’s why it’s much easier to assess a potential employee in an interview than on paper.

Here are some helpful cultural interview questions that you can ask applicants to make sure they’ll fit in with the existing crew. 

Culture Fit Interview Questions

Do you prefer working on your own or in a team?

A candidate’s preferred work style is one of the most basic factors in culture fit. A candidate that prefers to “do their own thing” won’t fit in well with a company that spends half of each day in collaborative meetings. And someone who loves to brainstorm in a group may be at sea in a self-starting, remote work environment. 

What’s your ideal method of workplace communication?

Some people are happy to hop on a call. Others would rather communicate in any other way than picking up the phone. How does your team communicate now? If your calendar is full of phone calls—and that method is working for you—you may not want the applicant who won’t even call their mother.

What excites you about the way we operate?

This question will demonstrate what the applicant knows about the company, and how they see themselves fitting in. Perhaps they read about your custom 12 points of service in a recent feature, and they are excited about your attention to the minute details of the guest experience. In a high-touch, service-focused business, this person could be a great fit.

Do you consider yourself a competitive person?

If your sales team has a monthly sales contest complete with plenty of good-natured ribbing over happy hour, a competitive streak is an advantage. If your customer service team has to answer calls from combative customers on occasion, a competitive nature may hurt rather than help. 

How would you respond to X?

Think of a recent scenario that the applicant would be likely to face again, and ask how they’d respond. If their response is fundamentally in line with what the company chose to do, this is an indication that their internal compass points the same way as yours. 

Make sure to avoid proprietary specifics as you assess their answers. They obviously don’t know about internal protocols yet. Instead, you’re looking for the spirit of their answer. If one of your values is that you’ll do anything to keep the guest happy, you’re looking for candidates who embody that type of “above and beyond” approach to guest satisfaction.

What does your ideal work week look like?

The goal here is to learn about the prospective employee’s ideal work-life balance. For some people, a flexible schedule that lets them pick up their kids from school is high on their list. So a company that demands that employees be onsite from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM every day with no exceptions may not be a good fit for that candidate.

Be Careful to Avoid Bias When Assessing Potential Employees

When considering “culture fit,” it can be all too easy to fall into a bias trap. The hiring manager looks at who already works at the company, and only hires new employees who resemble the current team in some way. Maybe the team mostly consists of younger parents, so they automatically look for people with kids of a similar age. Or maybe the manager went to the local university, so they give extra consideration to people who share their alma mater.

When hiring managers behave this way, they conflate demographics with culture. Just because someone matches the demographics of your current team, that does not mean they’d be a culture fit. And when you give weight to these demographics, you may unwittingly be participating in discriminatory hiring practices.

That’s why culture fit questions should focus on the work, and not on personal traits. Diversity is not antithetical to a culture fit. In fact, diversity can be an important part of your company culture, leading to more perspectives and a better understanding of your customers.