When it comes to sizing up job candidates, cultural fit is just as important to consider as qualifications.

That’s why hiring managers must use their heart and not just their head during selection process. Your company should use insight to assess how job candidate’s character and personality — not just skills — will fit into corporate culture.

People are your company’s best, most important investment. This is especially true for executives and others in key positions that have greatest potential to impact your bottom line.

Whether you need a senior-level executive or a department manager, you cannot afford to hire wrong person. If you do, you could encounter a negative hiring experience, which can cost valuable time and money. Poor hiring situations can equate to lost production and business — not to mention other tangible costs related to interviewing, placement fees, relocation, and training. Minimum figures for executive turnover are reportedly four to five times annual salary.

What Is Corporate Culture?

By definition, corporate culture is “the act of developing intellectual and moral faculties, especially through education.” But in a broader sense, it’s “the moral, social, and behavioral norms of an organization based on beliefs, attitudes, and priorities of its members.”

Fostering teamwork is a top priority for many leaders, according to Suzanne Willis Zoglio, Ph.D., author of Teams At Work: 7 Keys to Success, The Participative Leader. There are obvious benefits: increased productivity, improved customer service, more flexible systems and employee empowerment.

A team is a group of people working towards a common goal. Generally, objectives that a team sets out to accomplish can’t be effectively achieved by individuals. Think of it this way: TEAM = Together Everyone Achieves More.

Within a business, every employee serves as a crucial member of company’s team. No matter where you are on corporate ladder, you add intrinsic value to your organization through your strengths, talents, gifts and other assets.

Some companies are taking a more impersonal approach to evaluating assets of prospective and current employees. They employ high-tech data mining programs or personality tests to “crunch” information about employees’ skills, qualifications, experiences, workload and performance to assess their integrity, loyalty and satisfaction. Or, job candidates are being analyzed to predict their potential fit within company’s culture.

This non-personalized approach to evaluation provides a quick, automated way to size up individuals. But it leaves less room for human instinct, which can be an important barometer of an employees true value. Realizing Your Own Strengths, Talents and Gifts

Despite what any data mining software may construe, your contributions as an employee form an integral link in chain of your company’s success. And it’s important to understand true value that you lend to your corporate team.

Whether you’re part of a companywide or smaller work group, you should understand your role and responsibilities as a valued member. Picture yourself as a single, unique Lego building block that can help form a wonderful creation when connected to other pieces. But you have to be willing to add your block to pile, so others can build on it to produce a masterpiece.

It works same way with our skills and talents. All of us have different abilities and unique perspectives that can be instrumental in solving complex problems. For example, if you’re an excellent organizer and coordinator, you should be open to using these skills to produce a smooth work flow within your department or project work group.