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Carrington West have put together an article about company culture and the questions you need to ask.

6 min read

As part of our EmPLAYability campaign, we have teamed up with our sports club sponsor and highly successful recruitment company Carrington West. Carrington West is an award-winning company that provides high calibre talent to the UK highways,  transport and infrastructure, town planning, water and environmental, utilities, power and telecoms, building and rail industries. They have kindly put together a range of tips to help you in your search for employment.

The below article contains tips on how to research a company so you know what it will be like to actually work there. Company culture is incredibly important, and when graduates are new to interviewing, it is one area that they often neglect to research. However, being a good cultural fit is often the key to settling in and flourishing in your role.

4 Questions to help you find out about a company’s culture before you accept a job offer.

Company culture is the way people and teams behave and interact in the workplace. Understanding the culture as an outsider can be challenging. However, knowing what to ask and what to look for during the interview process will help decide if you will be entering a company or team that will positively affect your work and your wellbeing. Company culture is a massive part of how we feel supported, how we perform and how much happiness we experience in our jobs. If you are joining a company in a senior position, your presence will likely have an impact on the culture of the company so it could be even more important to consider how you will fit into the existing culture as well as how you may need to be instrumental in improving or changing culture where necessary.   The below questions will help you probe further into a company’s culture. 

Can you describe your company and team culture?

Your interviewer should be able to easily articulate and describe the company and/or team culture. In fact, anyone in the organisation should be able to answer this question. This will indicate that time and effort have been put into understanding and shaping the culture so that staff are provided with a positive environment to work and perform.  

Look for: 
 

  • Examples of sharing successes and rewards.
  • Examples of collaboration, team building and peer support. 

What are your company values and can you provide examples of how they are part of your company culture?

Company culture often starts with values. Companies that have taken the time to consider what their values are and then go on to embed them in the culture and processes of the organisation are demonstrating that they are paying attention to culture and delivering against a framework that has been discussed and implemented to create a positive effect. If the values are clearly defined and evident in culture and processes, all you need to do is consider how the company values align with your own personal values.  

Look for: 
 

  • Examples of how the values are communicated to employees, as well as how frequently and using a variety of channels. 
  • Evidence that values are incorporated into reward and recognition programmes or KPIs.
  • Evidence that they acknowledge failures, that healthy debate is encouraged and conflicts are resolved.

During the pandemic how did you support employees?

This is key to understanding how resilient an organisation was during the pandemic and how much importance was placed on putting its people first. In some industries, it is possible that everything simply shut down, but even with extenuating circumstances, the way transitions from lockdown/furlough to reopening were handled speaks volumes. For organisations that moved to remote working, or where workers were required to be in the office/on-site despite personal risk, what guidance, support and provisions were put in place to keep people safe, prioritise wellbeing, and enable people to do their work.  

Look for: 
 

  • A focus on employee wellbeing and support including additional resources such as access to mental health resources, virtual exercise classes or care packages. 
  • Evidence of practical support such as the provision of office equipment to facilitate home working.
  • Virtual team building or social events to maintain camaraderie and forge relationships. 

 

What tools do teams use to collaborate now that we have remote or hybrid working practices?

Maintaining or creating a culture with a mix of working practices takes more than just signing up for a corporate Zoom account. Different technologies work for different teams and different job functions. How much thought and investment into technology, internal communications and process improvement to encourage social interaction and collaboration will point to how well culture is perpetuated whilst people are working away from the physical office. 

Look for: 
 

  • The story of how they have evolved practices. You want to hear how they learnt from trying different approaches, invited feedback and developed a framework where everyone can do their job and interact in the best way, for individuals and the company.  
     

Other indications of a positive company culture 

As well as speaking to the people you will be working with, it is a good idea to do some
further research. Review sites such as Glassdoor or Indeed, specifically aimed at employee feedback, as well as more general ones such as Trustpilot or Google, will paint a picture of the working environment. If you are interviewing with a smaller company, information may be harder to obtain as there will be fewer employees to provide a broad or balanced overview. Other information you can ask for includes the average length of service of employees, as well as speaking to your network about the general reputation of the company in the marketplace.

We hope that this article has helped you in identifying the right questions to ask to find out all the information you need on company culture. As well as this, hopefully, you are able to see the importance of positive company culture and the effects it can have on work life.

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If you are interested in finding out more about Carrington West, after reading this, you can visit their website. Carrington West may be particularly of interest to you if you are considering a career in UK highways, transport and infrastructure, town planning, water and environmental, utilities, power and telecoms, building and rail industries, or if you wish to work in recruitment.

If you need help with job hunting, interviews, CV writing or anything relating to careers and employability, we can help.