How To Responsibly Recruit for “Cultural Fit”
Your first candidate interview of the day just flew by and you didn’t even pick up your pen. You have so much in common with the candidate that you chatted effortlessly. You both have two daughters, a love for hockey and you both grew up in a small Midwest town. You leave the interview confident she is a good “cultural fit” for your company and recommend an offer. If this sounds familiar, stop right there. This is your official wake up call. Relying on social interactions to make hiring decisions may mean you end up with a team of people who look, act, and think just like you. This pattern not only promotes hiring bias and discrimination but also has a negative effect on innovation in the workplace. Does this mean hiring for cultural fit is outdated? Not necessarily, but it does mean that your team needs a plan to assess a candidate’s cultural fit using facts rather than feelings.
“Go with your gut.” In many situations, this would be good advice. For example, your gut provides helpful cues in low-risk decisions like choosing a flavor of ice cream or selecting a book to purchase. But when it comes to assessing an employee cultural fit, your gut is an unreliable, and often unhelpful, source. It offers better insight into whether you could be friends with the person (i.e., Can I imagine having a beer at happy hour with this person?). A team member selected in this manner would be a better fit for a party invite rather than a high performing team.
Instead, reframe how your hiring managers think and assess fit. Start by introducing them to the concept of “cultural additive.” Think of this descriptor as a way to diversify skills and add dimension to the team. Instead of looking for clones, the team looks to fill gaps in knowledge, style, and experience. What new perspective can this candidate bring to the team?
Second, create search criteria that clearly outline what the position needs and how to assess it. Provide question options to your hiring team rather than relying on each person to put their unique spin on the interview. This level of clarity and detail will help your team level the playing field when assessing candidates. A candidate scorecard or other rating system can set expectations with the hiring team on what is important as it relates to culture. Are you looking for someone who is comfortable dealing with ambiguity? Then ask behavioral questions about how they have dealt with lack of information in the past. Clarity and measurable outcomes are key.
The term “cultural fit” is vague and can be easily misinterpreted. This may lead some to say that screening for culture is irrelevant. But before you throw out the baby with the bathwater, think about how your team can create structure to screen for meaningful cultural additives. With these tips, your team can make hiring decisions based on facts rather than relying on their gut or using social attributes as a determining factor.
