6 Benefits of Assessing a Company's Culture Before Accepting a Job Offer

When looking for a new job, investigate the company’s organizational culture. Steer clear of businesses that are known for having an unhealthy corporate culture. 

Whether you're job searching because you're angry with coworkers or management—or you feel great about the people you work with—take the time to learn about a company’s culture before you accept a job offer. If you've spent time in a workplace that leaves you frazzled, drained, or frustrated, you know why you want something better. But either way, there are steps you can take to better inform your final decision.

It can be tempting to let this confusing task slide to the end of your to-do list behind more obvious job search factors, especially if you're getting burned at work now and need to get out. When you search for jobs with the right driving distance, income, and experience level, you get an immediate “yes” or “no” answer to your questions. But determining whether management and team members work well together tests your judgment and ability to sniff out whatever facts there are to be had. You need to be your own detective, and that usually means doing more than just reading reviews on Glassdoor.

Fortunately, you don't necessarily have to work at a company to learn about its corporate culture. Just as employers gauge to see if you might work well with their team members without actually knowing you, you can gauge the company to assess whether you might have a good chance to be happy with their people.

A healthy company culture can be easy to take for granted, but when it's gone, you'll notice. An employer's publicized political leanings, the layout of the building, or the vision statement might initially make you feel more or less at home, but organizational health goes beyond personal preferences.

Every company has a unique culture which grows from the people that join them. And the health of a work culture weakens when each employee can't depend on accountability for leaders and team members or when there aren't effective mechanisms for addressing interpersonal conflicts. So you don't have to find your dream job or dream company to avoid this pitfall—basic happiness will do. 

Here are six benefits that can come from taking the time to more intentionally research the health of a company's culture before you accept a job offer.

1. You can show potential employers that you are serious about working for their company.

Making the extra effort helps you present well during interviews, especially if that employer also cares about this issue. Ask good questions about the company, and you'll show that you want to make a long-term commitment to its people and aren't only looking for paychecks.

If an employer wants to avoid high turnover and wants to hire people who will work well with their teams, this helps signal to them that you have something in common. And while taking these extra steps won't insulate you from problems that develop once you get there, your curiosity in the present shows a serious level of interest to employers.

2. You can protect your work reputation for future job searches.

If you work a long time for a company that has a particularly bad reputation with local recruiters and hiring managers, you risk being passed over because you've caught a bad case of the guilt-by-association. It's not fair, but it can happen.

And whether your employer's problems are public knowledge or not, if you work several places with unhealthy dynamics in short succession, you risk looking like a job hopper on your resume—or like that person who just doesn't know how to get along with their coworkers. If you take the time to gauge whether there are problems before you arrive, you can avoid looking like you're the one with the problem.

3. You can find people you want to work with.

Taking the time to learn about problems you might run into can also help you find coworkers and supervisors that you work well with. You can learn about the leadership styles of immediate supervisors and company-wide leaders beforehand by asking good questions. And you can investigate whether leaders are generally able to hold themselves and team members accountable for their work and behavior.

Employers don't limit themselves to questions and screenings which determine basic competency. Your competency is a minimum requirement, and they can usually find more than one competent person who wants to work for them. Employers often try to make an educated guess about your long-term compatibility with their team even though this doesn't always work for them. And if they can scrutinize your ability to be a good team member, you can scrutinize their ability to run good teams.

4. You can find companies that demonstrate a commitment to their people.

One way that companies demonstrate their commitment is by taking their employees beyond the minimum job requirements. Although companies that rely on additional skill development, cross-training, and internal promotions to get the help they need can still develop problems, helping you to develop your skills and grow with the company demonstrates some commitment to treating employees as more than expendable crewmen. But if problems do arise, you'll still probably get to add more skills to your resume for your next job search.

5. You can take proactive steps to protect your personal life from workplace misery.

It's not really possible to compartmentalize your personal and work life. The stress of being miserable for dozens of hours each week tends to accumulate, and it can make you sick. To shield your personal life and relationships and to avoid tracking the misery home with you, do your best to sidestep it in the first place.

And whether or not your new job includes tasks that you've always dreamed of doing, sensing that your coworkers have respect for each other and are working towards common goals can help you get a kind of fulfillment and meaning from your work that goes beyond getting to work in your dream job.

6. You won't let your present misery drive your decision making.

If you slow down long enough to keep your desperation from getting the better of you, you might just stop yourself from running from one bad place to another. Only you know what your limit is—and there are always exceptions. But whether your present situation is tolerable or not, you're already taking time to search for more work. And the amount of time it takes to change your search is part of what can help you find employers who recognize the value of striving for organizational health and take steps to do so. And you can learn how to look for them.

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