When we talk about workplace culture, most of the conversation focuses on what happens after someone joins an organization. We talk about whether employees feel connected to their teams, whether leaders communicate effectively, whether people feel valued, and ultimately, whether they want to stay.
But culture starts making an impression much earlier than that.
I was reminded of this recently during a conversation with Aapril D. Cumming, an executive recruiter with more than 25 years of experience across human resources, learning and development, leadership, and recruiting. I originally wanted to hear what she was seeing from candidates and employers in the current hiring environment. Instead, our conversation kept circling back to something much bigger: the way an organization treats people is visible long before someone's first day of work.
From the amount of trust employees are given to the opportunities they have to grow, culture influences not only whether people stay, but whether the right people want to join in the first place.
Sometimes Good Culture Is Simply Trust
Early in our conversation, Aapril shared what she appreciates about her current workplace. She works remotely for T.A. Davis & Associates, a boutique executive search firm, and described having a level of flexibility and trust that hasn't always existed in other environments throughout her career.
She told me about a recent Friday when she was helping plan a surprise birthday party for a friend. She mentioned to her manager that if there wasn't anything pressing that afternoon, she was going to wrap up work and take care of some things for the party. Instead of questioning where she was going or whether she should still be working, her manager encouraged her to go enjoy herself.
What Aapril appreciated wasn't simply the ability to leave early. It was what that interaction communicated: her manager trusted her to know what needed to get done and to get it done. She described it as being “treated and respected as an adult” who could be responsible for her work while also having a life outside of it.
We often make workplace culture more complicated than it needs to be. Organizations invest in engagement programs, events, surveys, perks, committees, and initiatives, and those things can certainly have value. But they can't compensate for an environment where people don't feel trusted.
“Sometimes one of the most meaningful things a leader can communicate is simply: I trust you to do your job.”
That trust creates autonomy, and autonomy communicates respect. Those everyday interactions may never appear in an employee handbook or culture strategy, but they shape how it actually feels to work somewhere.
Your Culture Is Already Part of Your Recruitment Strategy
Aapril's work as an executive recruiter gives her an interesting view into culture because she sees organizations from the outside while also trying to understand what kind of person will thrive on the inside.
When her firm begins working with a client to fill a position, the conversation isn't limited to experience, education, responsibilities, and qualifications. They also discuss the organization's culture and climate because those factors help determine whether a candidate will actually be a good fit. Aapril explained that while technology can help identify potential candidates, there are human nuances that require someone to actually review a person's experience and talk with them.
That distinction matters because hiring the right person involves more than matching a resume to a job description.
A candidate may have every required skill and still struggle in the environment you've created. Conversely, someone whose experience looks slightly different on paper may possess exactly the communication style, adaptability, motivation, or temperament your team needs.
This is why culture isn't simply an employee engagement issue. Culture is also a recruitment tool.
Candidates are evaluating organizations just as organizations are evaluating them. Throughout the hiring process, they're gathering information about how people communicate, what leadership looks like, how much autonomy employees have, whether development is encouraged, and what the organization genuinely values.
By the time someone accepts an offer, your culture has already been speaking to them.
People Want to See a Future
One of the most interesting moments in our conversation came when I asked Aapril what talented candidates are looking for in a workplace right now.
Her answer wasn't about office perks, remote work, free lunches, or elaborate benefits. She said the most common concern she hears is a lack of growth opportunity. Candidates tell her they don't know where they can go next. Their salary feels capped, their title feels capped, their responsibilities aren't changing, or they simply aren't learning anymore.
That adds an important dimension to the way we think about belonging at work.
Creating an environment where people feel that they belong matters, but belonging isn't only about feeling comfortable or connected in the present. People also need to be able to imagine a future for themselves within the organization.
Culture isn't only about belonging. It's also about becoming.
Aapril has extensive experience in succession planning, and she spoke about the importance of hiring people with potential and intentionally helping them develop toward whatever comes next. She sees an opportunity for more organizations to build that kind of thinking directly into how they manage and develop their people.
For leaders, that doesn't necessarily mean promising everyone a promotion. Not every organization has endless levels or titles available. Growth can mean expanding responsibilities, developing a new skill, taking ownership of a project, mentoring someone else, or being given opportunities that stretch someone's capabilities.
The larger question is whether employees believe they are still becoming something while they're working for you.
The Candidate Experience Is a Culture Experience
Toward the end of our conversation, I asked Aapril what she wished every leader understood about recruiting right now. Her answer was immediate: “Respect people's time.”
It's easy to view an application as another name in a hiring system, particularly when hundreds of people may be applying for a single position. From the candidate's perspective, however, that application represents time and effort. They may have researched the organization, updated their resume, written a cover letter, completed an application, prepared for interviews, rearranged their schedule, and spent time considering whether this could be the right next move.
Aapril recalled applying for a position herself and receiving a rejection almost immediately after submitting the application, leaving her with the impression that an automated system had screened her out before her experience had meaningfully been considered.
Regardless of whether someone ultimately gets the job, the way an organization handles that interaction communicates something about it.
Was communication clear? Was the candidate's time respected? Did someone follow through when they said they would? Did the process feel thoughtful and human? Did the experience reflect the values the organization promotes publicly?
We often think of onboarding as someone's introduction to company culture, but the candidate experience comes first. For many people, the hiring process is the first opportunity an organization has to demonstrate what its culture looks like in practice.
Recruitment and Retention Aren't Separate Culture Conversations
One of the biggest things I took away from my conversation with Aapril was how interconnected all of these issues really are.
We tend to separate recruitment, retention, leadership development, employee engagement, communication, and culture into different organizational initiatives. In reality, employees experience all of them at the same time.
A workplace that trusts people gives candidates and employees a reason to believe they'll have autonomy. A workplace that develops people gives them a reason to imagine staying. A hiring process that respects candidates' time provides an early signal about how the organization treats people. Strong leadership reinforces all of it.
This is also why organizations should be cautious about treating recruitment and retention problems as isolated problems to solve. If you're struggling to attract the right people, the answer may not simply be a better job posting. If good employees keep leaving, the answer may not be another engagement initiative.
The more useful question may be: What are people experiencing here?
Are they trusted to do their jobs? Do they understand where they can grow? Are leaders developing people instead of simply managing output? Does the organization treat people's time as valuable? Does the experience of working there match the culture being advertised?
Those answers tell you far more about culture than a list of company values ever could.
Because ultimately, culture isn't something an organization announces. It's something people experience, often through seemingly ordinary interactions. And those experiences begin before someone accepts the job and continue through every reason they eventually choose to stay.
Or leave.