What’s the most important information you can share to ensure the success of new employees? Step-by-step instructions on how to do their jobs? A breakdown of where they fit on the org chart? No. While those details should be included in your orientation, the most important information you can provide is an understanding of your company’s culture. Follow these steps:

• Review the past. Ask new hires to describe how the culture in their previous companies supported the organizational mission. If they have trouble giving succinct responses, it could mean other employers haven’t done an adequate job communicating those issues. Or it could indicate that your new hires have never given much through to the Big Picture.

• Explain the present. Can you give a succinct response when asked to describe your company’s culture? If not, you need to devise one. Be prepared to assess your culture in ten words or less-then offer examples of culture in action. For instance, you may relate how one employee went above and beyond to help a customer. Or you may describe how another took the initiative to design a new product.

• Discuss the future. Finally, once you’ve laid out the cultural landscape, explain how your new hires fit in. To help build loyalty and long-term commitment, you should strive to make them see the importance of their roles-and that they’re part of something larger than themselves.

-Adapted from "Tips to match a new recruit’s perspective with workplace culture," by Ben Smith, in Recruiting Trends

Hiring employees who mesh with your corporate culture can yield great productivity and retention benefits. The following questions, culled from hiring experts, can help you suss out during an interview how well a job candidate would fit in:

1. How would previous coworkers describe you professionally?
2. What do you expect from your manager?
3. Describe a disagreement you had at work and how it was resolved.
4. What is your professional passion?
5. Detail one of your most successful accomplishments on the job?
6. Describe a project you worked on that wasn’t going well, what you did to fix it, and what you learned from the experience.

Source: Employee Recruitment & Retention, www.ragan.com, Lawrence Ragan Communications, Inc. 800.878.5331

You’ve narrowed you choice to two potential candidates to promote into a supervisory role. Whom do you choose?

Try the "CAIR" approach. Judge these four attributes and you’ll have your answer:

• Conflict management. Promote those who demonstrate leadership in the face of conflict. The best managers grapple with conflicts without flinching. They realize that their success depends on doing what’s right, not just making friends with their staffs.

• Ability. Managers need to master a toolbox full of skills such as time management, interpersonal communication and delegation. Promote those who show they already possess these strengths.

• Independence. You want outspoken managers willing to buck conventional wisdom and challenge "the way things are always done around here." A "yes" person who marches in lock step with the top brass will make a poor leader.

• Respect. Manager must command their teams’ respect. Do other workers look up to this person? If not, set your sights on someone else.

Source: Success in Recruiting and Retaining, www.nibm.net, (800) 543-2055, August 2002