Beyond Recruiting for Cultural Fit

I spend a lot of time discussing hiring practices with clients, and I see great diversity in how different organizations understand and approach their hiring decisions. Recently, in a discussion with an employee at a Gallup client’s factory, a machinist complained to me. When asked what he would look for if they were involved in the hiring process, he replied, “A sense of humor. Easy to joke around with other members so you can fit in!”

After the conversation, the factory HR director confessed to me that he disliked this notion of the need for a good “joke” in the workplace. and thought that the organization needed “culture ad”. I agree and shared examples of how some of our clients have been proactive in making this change to foster their ambition of diversity and inclusion. I also worked on doing

Cultural fit is the idea of ​​hiring individuals whose value systems, beliefs, and day-to-day behaviors align with the hiring organization, so as not to compromise the culture.

While this may seem reasonable and harmless, basing hiring decisions on an individual’s perception of cultural fit can be unfair and subject to unconscious bias.

Culture Add is a new interpretation of the Culture Fit concept. Rather than making hiring decisions that create a homogenous, familiar culture, culture addition drives hiring decisions that focus on the candidate’s unique and beneficial attributes, values, beliefs, and behaviors. That’s what they bring to the organization from their unique perspective and experience.

Hiring for cultural fit is often unfair

Recruiting for culture fit requires that hiring decision makers understand the organizational values, beliefs and expected behaviors used to define culture, treat them as role models, and ensure that they are fair and informed. It assumes that you can make informed selection decisions.

However, decision makers often have their own values ​​and beliefs that may not align with those of the organization. Recruiting techniques such as “airport testing” (making hypotheses about whether or not you want to be stuck at an airport with this person) and other arbitrary methods for assessing fit into corporate culture are often Subject to first impression bias and confirmation bias. And this is the kind of bias that can be avoided when hiring top talent.

Lack of cultural fit is the leading reason for declining candidates and firing probationary employees. But because of its subjective and ambiguous nature, “You don’t fit the culture” usually results in an unpleasant leaving experience rather than helpful feedback that helps candidates and employees improve. .

In today’s market environment, where 51% of currently employed workers say they are actively looking for a new job or looking for a job vacancy, employees are ‘workplace consumers’. Negative experiences at every stage of an employee’s journey put employers at risk. brand.

Hiring for Cultural Fit Requires Cultural Maturity

Recruiting for cultural fit assumes some level of maturity in an organization’s cultural journey. This involves a fair amount of awareness and training. But in today’s reality, he strongly agrees that 2 out of 10 of her employees feel connected to the organization’s culture.

Recruitment for cultural fit becomes difficult when an organization’s expected value systems, beliefs and behaviors are ambitious rather than practiced and practiced. In many cases, the decision-makers themselves are not “fit” into the desired culture, making the process hypocritical and making the choice decisions feel inauthentic, making them demanding.

Remote and hybrid work complicates the potential for additional culture. The majority of worker connectivity comes primarily through technology.

Part of the solution could be adding culture or revising the concept of culture fit. Rather than making hiring decisions that create a culture of homogeneity and familiarity, culture addition facilitates hiring decisions that focus on the candidate’s unique and beneficial attributes, values, beliefs, and behaviors so that the organization Allows you to add the missing elements of value to your culture. Culture add celebrates diversity and recognizes that organizational culture is constantly improving.

But the fundamental need is to recognize what the organization is hiring for and why it matters. Good hiring practices take into account not only cultural needs, value systems and technical competencies, but also role-specific talent attributes and behaviors that explain high performance.

At Gallup, our talent research explores the patterns and trends of high performers in each role. Organizations that hire applicants recommended by Gallup’s talent-based assessments are 10% more productive, 30% more productive, and 10% employee turnover, among other business outcomes tends to decline.

In fact, Gallup’s advisories and tools help clients focus their hiring processes on what they need to achieve high performance while enabling diversity.

Simply put, employers should stop trying to do that fit Align employees or candidates with the culture of the workplace.instead they should addition Adapt to the workplace culture by tailoring hiring practices to employees’ talents, abilities and aspirations.