Hiring For Culture Fit

Culture fit is a term that is becoming ubiquitous in recruiting. I have been asked by both hiring managers and candidates why culture fit is so important when interviewing and hiring new Gravity Payments employees. It seems obvious why a candidate should care about culture fit. Is this a company that will give you the work/life balance you need to live a happy and healthy life? Will you feel out of place in your preferred work outfit of jeans and Converse? Will your new manager care about and invest in your professional development? These are all things that candidates should be assessing before accepting an offer.

But, what does culture fit mean for Gravity?

As Gravity’s recruiter, the number one response I get from candidates when asked why they are looking for a job is stagnation. Professional growth is important to candidates, and it’s important to us, too! Our team takes pride in our employee retention, and that’s in no small part thanks to our culture of learning and development. Gravity employees are empowered to push themselves out of their comfort zone and to take on new challenges and opportunities whenever possible. Some of our biggest achievements have been a result of a team member identifying a need that falls outside of their typical job responsibilities and then taking the initiative to find a solution. Complacent employees can suppress innovation, so Gravity is always looking for people who want to grow with the company and create new things.

Another key component of Gravity’s culture is our fearlessness and willingness to take risks. We’ve tried things other companies find to be too risky, things that people have said would never work. And sometimes they’re right. But, not always (70K, anyone?). Failure is scary for a lot of us, but Gravity operates with a “we’ll never know if we don’t try” mentality. We hire people who believe that “because that’s how it’s always been done” or “because that’s how everyone else does it” is not a good enough answer when someone asks “why?”. Gravity could easily take the safe route and would probably have marginal success in our industry, but that’s just not us. Gravity strives everyday to be an industry-leader with happy merchants and happy employees, and we’re going to keep trying new things to keep things that way.

Gravity’s culture is so much more than just our fearlessness and our desire to challenge and grow our employees, but that’s a blog for another day. We love finding people who are the best at what they do, but it is downright exciting to find someone who wants to roll up their sleeves, try something new, and further their career.

By the way, did I mention we’re looking for these people in all of our markets?

Caitlin is the recruiter at Gravity Payments. To learn more about job opportunities at Gravity, check out our Careers page!