Looking for effective employees? All you have to do is to define your company culture first and then match your employee recruitment efforts with it.

According to James J Lynn, consulting psychologist and president of Lynn & Associates, a management consulting company which focuses on business planning, sales force development and productivity and quality improvement, at a cultural level and a driving force level, there are four core types of organizations.

• The product company
• The customer company
• The process company
• The confused company

THE PRODUCT COMPANY

As you drive into the parking lot of the product company, you get your first clues about the company's focus. You drive up by the entrance and see reserved parking spots near the door for the president and vice president. You find visitor parking 200 yards away, over by the dumpster. As you enter the sparse and frugally furnished lobby, you talk to the receptionist through a glass window that protects her from visitors. On the way to your appointment, you notice that the halls are full of pictures of the company's products and employees. You get a sense that this organization is more internally focused than externally focused.

You have arrived at a product company. Organizations that focus on products/services have a lot of activity going on. The people seem to be very smart and creative. They even team up to develop and launch new products. Product managers are key people here; they are champions for their products, and they fight for resources with other product managers. The driving force here is products (or services), period. If the company raises a million dollars, the first question managers ask each other is, "What products should we invest in?" Of course, customers are important here -- after all, the company needs customers to buy its products. However, when a customer asks for something a little different or extra, the company tends to see this customer as annoying and overly demanding.

The defining characteristic for a product company is that products and services come first, and customers come second.

THE CUSTOMER COMPANY

As you approach the customer company (a hotel, for instance), the doorman glances at your luggage tag and says, "Welcome, Dr. Lynn, to the Le Meridian." At the check-in you are offered a glass of iced tea and a warm towel so you can clean up after an arduous trip. Later that night, you comment to the bartender that the dessert tray in the dining room looks tempting. He replies, "Let me have the tray brought in so you can look at the choices."

Everything at this hotel seems to be focused on the guest. Customer companies are focused on their customers' wants and needs. The employees in the customer company tend to be other-oriented instead of self-oriented. They anticipate their customers' needs. Employees are trained to treat each customer as the customer wants to be treated.

Sure, customer companies have products and services to sell, but customers come first, and products second.

THE PROCESS COMPANY

As you drive up to a process company, the first thing you notice is how familiar the company looks. You could be in any of its branches anywhere in the world and the company looks the same.. This type of company offers a good product or service for a low price, which means a great value for the customer. Don't expect a lot of fancy options and extras from the process company. What you see is what you get.

The employees in the process company are no-nonsense types. They like the structure and predictability of their work. They look for ways to do things more efficiently. Process improvement and lower costs are the focus. Process companies like to have a lot of customers.They think in terms of market share.

THE CONFUSED COMPANY

The intentions of the confused company are good. These companies want to do a good job and please everyone. They want to handle the special requests, and also deliver the lowest costs with the best possible customer service. The problem with the confused company is that it isn't focused. It lacks a clear identity.

Consequently, the employees in the confused company aren't sure what to do. Should special customer requests be a low priority, or should employees go out of their way to fulfill these requests? The problem is that some employees ignore special requests, and others say, "It will be my pleasure." This results in confused customers. Sometimes customers are accommodated, and other times they're ignored.

THE RIGHT PERSON FOR THE RIGHT CULTURE

"Once you understand the four kinds of companies with their respective cultures, you can apply the concept to hiring," explains Lynn.Happy, productive employees are basically that way because they are working in the right company for them. At the very core of the hiring process is the whole question of cultural fit. If companies did a better job of identifying their cultures, they would do a better job of recruiting and hiring people who would thrive in their environment.

Dr Lynn outlines a "simple four-step formula for making hires that will succeed -- and they'll succeed because cultural fit is taken into consideration first.

• Identify your company's culture. Are you basically a product, customer, process or confused company? This step is the hardest because you may have to tell the emperor that he has no clothes. If you have a confused company, do some strategic thinking to get focused.
• Profile the position you're seeking to fill. Create a position description for the job. Identify both the job skills and "soft skills" needed for the position. Build your cultural traits into the profile.
• Create a structured interview guide. Develop questions to ask candidates based on your profile. Remember, the best predictor of future performance is past behavior. Ask questions about what candidates have done, not about their opinions or feelings. Include questions, tests or simulations that reflect your company's culture (for example, dealing with an angry customer, or figuring out how to lower the cost of a product/service).
• Hire the candidate who fits your culture and has the skills. Use your knowledge of your culture to make the best hire. You can always teach a smart employee a new software application, but you can't make a zebra out of a leopard.

In summary, there are four kinds of companies and four kinds of employees. The most successful companies intuitively match their employee recruitment efforts to their culture. These effective companies align employee behavior, skills and values with the culture of the company.