Cultural fit is a hiring and HR principle that refers to how well a job candidate's values, workplace behavior, and communication style align with the organization’s established culture. Many businesses are staunchly committed to cultural fit and consider it a major factor in hiring decisions. They opt for talent with not just the skills to perform the job, but also the personal attributes and attitudes that align with and positively contribute to the overall culture. But while arguably well intentioned, hiring practices that overemphasize the importance of cultural fit might ultimately lead to a lack of organizational innovation, creativity, and growth.
Cultural fit is an important element of workplace wellbeing. But how much weight should it be given in the hiring process and how might it negatively impact the very environment you are trying to enhance?
Team chemistry is important. It is essential that your people collaborate and just plain get along. But hiring that is overly concerned with cultural fit can often lead to an unhealthy uniformity in how your team performs and progresses. What started as a litmus for conformity into existing norms can turn into a barrier that stymies cultural evolution. Your culture is not a static entity, but rather a dynamic environment that thrives and adapts to new ideas, people, and opportunities. By strictly adhering to the status quo, you have a hiring process that lacks forward thinking.
Instead of determining whether a job candidate will fit into your current culture, focus on whether they may contribute to an even more dynamic culture waiting in the wings.
Hiring for cultural fit is often a perceived means to a harmonious workplace. It reduces the likeliness of opposing viewpoints and differing approaches. When everyone on your team is wired to do things the in same way, friction is reduced. But so is innovation. It’s called “The Comfort Zone”, and it is a deceivingly dangerous place to run and grow your business.
Instead of feeding into an environment in which everyone always agrees, create a space in which your people feel safe to speak up, offer opposing views, and contribute in ways that matter to them. Psychological safety is a much stronger cultural foundation than comfort and conformity. It allows for diversity of thought, increased motivation, and enhanced growth opportunities.
Businesses that depend too heavily on cultural fit and harmony often lack diversity in how their team members behave and communicate. DISC Assessments are informative and fascinating tools to measure an individual’s natural and adapted behaviors and communication styles. The resulting DISC report quantifies and color codes four core qualities: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance. DISC scores are not judged as good or bad. They simply provide insight into engagement tendencies and can often reveal hiring preferences based on cultural fit.
When DISC profiles are analyzed across an organization, the similarity in the bar graphs can be striking. When all the color-coded charts reflect nearly identical distributions, it becomes visually clear just how narrowly a company may be hiring.
Consider the limitations of a team comprised solely of individuals who score high in Steadiness and Compliance and low in Dominance and Influence. You would expect the over-abundance of those qualities to impact organizational performance, innovation, and growth.
In contrast, organizations that hire for balance rather than conformity to cultural fit often build more well-rounded and adaptable teams.
The determination of cultural fit can feel arbitrary. Does this person share our sense of humor (whose exact humor is that)? Does this person have a strong work ethic (what does that really look like)? Does this person match our organizational energy (how do you quantify this)?
Particularly in smaller businesses, cultural fit is often defined as people who are deemed comfortable to be around because they conform to the organizational norms. But sometimes seeking cultural fit can be an excuse for hiring people who look the part. On the positive side, that might translate to poise and professional polish. But unfortunately, it might also manifest in their age, race or gender. While it is illegal to make employment decisions based on protected classes, cultural fit is sometimes misappropriated to justify hiring for certain aesthetics. Not only is this illegal and immoral, but it also robs the business of a dynamic workforce.
Company culture is dynamic, not static. So instead of identifying conformity markers to your current cultural mold, assess job candidates for their potential to contribute to your organization’s cultural evolution. Does this person toe the cultural line or do they perhaps bring something extra to the table that will inspire and foster growth and innovation?
It is important to define and embrace your organization’s core values, then find and hire talent that aligns with those principles. But why not look for something more in a person who manifests those qualities in new and expansive ways.
Hire the talent that makes your business stronger today and reshapes what success looks like tomorrow.
When interviewing for a job opening, ask questions to determine if the candidate will add to your culture, not whether they will simply fit in. Consider including various team members in the hiring process to ensure that cultural fit isn’t defined by a single lens. Instead of dwelling on conformity, focus on alignment.
Cultural fit as a hiring criterion certainly has its worth, but not when it is designed to maintain unreasonable compliance to a homogeneous status quo. When adding to your team, be conscious of your company culture and ensure that top candidates are aligned with your organization’s mission and values; but also consider the significance of new perspectives and how individuality might actually help your culture grow, adapt, and thrive.