Using the Culture add test

The culture add test assesses how a candidate’s values and behaviors align with your company’s.

Culture is a set of values that a team holds collectively — whether consciously or unconsciously — and is expressed through the daily behaviors and actions of individual team members.

At TestGorilla we’ve created a test to help you hire for culture in an objective, measurable, and repeatable way. We call it the culture add test because it helps you identify and hire individuals who can thrive at your organization and make positive contributions to its culture. This test is available on Pay-as-you-go, Scale, and Business plans.

Approx. reading time 6 minutes

In this article

1. How the culture add test measures cultural alignment
2. Taking the culture add survey
3. Interpreting results of the culture add survey
4. Common questions

How the culture add test measures cultural alignment

To assess many things objectively, you need to evaluate all of them against the same measure and compare the results. It’s the reason we have things like rulers, scales, and standard cup sizes. It’s also the reason we offer skills tests at TestGorilla. 

The culture add test does the same thing but for your culture. It begins by setting the standard for your culture through a questionnaire you complete, and then determines how well your candidate aligns with that survey

To measure the two parameters for the culture add test — values and behaviors — and set a standard for your candidates, we have both you and your candidates fill out a survey and then compare those surveys. 

Taking the culture add survey

After adding the culture add survey to an assessment, click Finish to go to the assessment overview page. From here, you will be able to set your answers for the test. 

The survey will take around 10 minutes to complete, spread across 2 sections. You may need input from others in your company to help you complete it, but only one person can complete it.

This section contains the following subsections — you can click each section name to jump ahead.

1. Set the answers yourself
2. Invite someone else to set the answers
3. Reuse or edit answers from a previous survey
4. Values
5. Behaviors
6. Male/female symbols

Set the answers yourself

After adding the culture add survey to an assessment, click Finish to go to the assessment overview page. From here, you will be able to set your answers for the test. 

	Click the green button labeled Take the survey, found in the white bar at the top of the page. A new page will pop up with more information.
	Follow the on-screen instructions. You’ll be redirected to a new tab that gives a description of the survey and what you need to do next.

 

Invite someone else to set the answers

After adding the culture add survey to an assessment, click Finish to go to the assessment overview page. From here, you will be able to set your answers for the test. 

	Click the white bar labeled Culture add survey, found at the top of the page. This will expand the bar, presenting you with more information
	Click the green link labeled Invite them here.
	Enter the credentials of the desired colleague. A popup will appear, prompting you for the name and email address of your coworker. Enter their details.
	Click the Send invitation button. Your teammate will receive an email with a link to take the survey.

 

Reuse or edit answers from a previous survey

After adding the culture add survey to an assessment, click Finish to go to the assessment overview page. From here, you will be able to set your answers for the test. 

	Click the white bar labeled Culture add survey, found at the top of the page. This will expand the bar, presenting you with more information
	Click the green link labeled Copy or edit answers from a previous culture add survey.
	Select the assessment you want to copy the survey from in the dropdown menu. A new window will open, welcoming you to the survey. Select an option from the dropdown at the bottom of the screen
	Click Change answers to start the survey with answers already selected and ready to be changed. Click Use all previous answers to close the window, using the same answers as the previous survey.

 

Values

Values apply to your entire organization so you should keep the same ratings across all your roles. 

Examples of values include :

• Achievement
• Equality
• Independence

Many of the values on our list will not match the exact words you use to define your company values, but that’s totally fine. This can benefit you, as candidates won’t be able to quickly guess your 10 most important values based on your company website.

You will be presented with a list of words representing various values. Rate each of the values on a scale of 1 to 5 according to their importance to your company as a whole.

Your candidates will be shown the same list of words and asked to choose the 10 values that are the most important to them. Each value they choose will receive the score you assigned to it. Candidates don’t see your scoring — they will only see a list of values.

Every value must have a rating selected. You cannot move to the next section without selecting an answer.

When you have finished rating the values, click Next to move to the next section.

 

Behaviors

Behaviors relate to how candidates approach their work and what you consider essential for success in a particular role.

Unlike values, desirable behaviors will vary from role to role based on the needs of the role and the current composition of the team.

Example traits include:

• Analytical
• Diligent
• Helpful

By screening candidates for particular behaviors from role to role, you can identify and interview a diverse roster of employees. That’s because when you look at behaviors in a standardized way across your candidates, you avoid subjective assessments and assumptions based on factors like background, race, ethnicity, gender, and other parameters that could — unconsciously — influence your evaluation of a candidate. 

You will be presented with a list of words representing various behaviors. Rate each of the behaviors on a scale of 1 to 5 according to their importance for the specific role.

As with values, your candidates will be asked to select the 10 behaviors that most closely reflect who they are. Each behavior they choose will receive the score you assigned to it. Candidates don’t see your scoring — they will only see a list of behaviors.

Every behavior must have a rating selected. You cannot end the survey without selecting an answer.

When you have finished rating the behaviors, you can either click Previous to return to the previous screen or click Finish to save your answers and end the survey.

 

Male/female symbols

Gender-coded language might prevent certain candidates from identifying with a role. To reduce bias, we’ve highlighted words that are gender-coded language by placing maleand femalesymbols next to those words. These are words that are typically associated with a specific gender.

Try to balance the number of masculine and feminine words when identifying the most important activities for your job role. This will help you avoid accidentally favoring one group of individuals over another.

Interpreting results of the culture add survey

Overall results

The candidate’s overall score is presented as a percentage, with each section worth 50% of the total score. A high score means the candidate is a good match for your company and role based on the values and behaviors they have selected.

You can expand the Culture add results by clicking them to see the score that was achieved on each section.

Details

Clicking on the percentage in the expanded view will give you a more detailed breakdown of how your candidate answered:

The words are the choices the candidate made, while their color represents the score you assigned to the word. As dictated by the legend at the bottom of the popup, Teal means you assigned a word a rating of 5, while Red is a rating of 1.

In the example above, Passion and Efficiency are words that were selected by the candidate, and were rated highly by the company. Commitment was selected as being important to the candidate, but its red color means the company does not find this to be particularly important.

Common questions

How can I change the answers I have provided?
Once the survey has been completed, the answers cannot be changed.

Who should answer the survey?
The person with the most insight into the role is the best person to set the answers. This is usually the direct manager that your new hire will be reporting to or a person currently working in this role.

Can multiple people answer the survey?
Only one person can answer the survey. While you can send invitations to multiple people, our system will only accept the first completed submission. 

Why aren't there pre-generated answers?
Every company and job has different needs. Because of this, we cannot provide generic answers. To receive the most accurate information, you need to complete the survey yourself.