What is Culture Fit? The Invisible Agent of Hiring For Long-Term
11/25/2024
#ForBusiness
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What is Culture Fit? The Invisible Agent of Hiring For Long-Term
Culture Fit In a Nutshell
How Was The Term Coined?
What Exactly Does an Employee Fit In For?
Criticism of Culture Fit
Culture Add
Assessing Culture Fit & Culture Add In Candidates
Conclusion
The term ‘culture fit' helps describe how much an employee or, in case of remote freelance teams, a teammate aligns with the company’s values, beliefs and goals. Organizational psychologist Adrian Furnham offers this definition in his textbook The Psychology of Behaviour at Work, "A fit is where there is congruence between the norms and values of the organization and those of the person." Those considered a good culture fit have the necessary hard and soft skills that let them fit in the existing team and contribute.
According to Amy Kristof-Brown, culture fit is two-fold (Consequences of Individual’s Fit at Work). On the one hand, the organization and the individual meet each other’s needs, so there is culture fit. On the other hand, the organization and the individual share similar characteristics, which is typically considered the essence of culture fit.
The term has been incorporated into many HR and hiring-related processes. Job websites (Wellfound, for example) ask new users, as they fill in their resumes, what their values are in a workplace. Behavioral interview questions that candidates are faced with also reflect attempts at figuring out if they are culture fit or not. The term, as it is perceived most widely, may have even turned into something tribal. Simply put, an employee is culture fit if they speak and think and work like us, the business.
How serious could it be that my coworker and I don’t see eye to eye on certain matters? How important is it that Peter looks at a job as an occupation from 8am to 5pm, and Susie as an important startup that will make the world a better place? Well, in truth, it matters quite a bit! The reason you want to pay attention to what rules and standards your candidate holds themselves to is because these very standards will be applied to their work — and your product.
According to Amy Kristof-Brown, culture fit is two-fold (Consequences of Individual’s Fit at Work). On the one hand, the organization and the individual meet each other’s needs, so there is culture fit. On the other hand, the organization and the individual share similar characteristics, which is typically considered the essence of culture fit.
The term has been incorporated into many HR and hiring-related processes. Job websites (Wellfound, for example) ask new users, as they fill in their resumes, what their values are in a workplace. Behavioral interview questions that candidates are faced with also reflect attempts at figuring out if they are culture fit or not. The term, as it is perceived most widely, may have even turned into something tribal. Simply put, an employee is culture fit if they speak and think and work like us, the business.
How serious could it be that my coworker and I don’t see eye to eye on certain matters? How important is it that Peter looks at a job as an occupation from 8am to 5pm, and Susie as an important startup that will make the world a better place? Well, in truth, it matters quite a bit! The reason you want to pay attention to what rules and standards your candidate holds themselves to is because these very standards will be applied to their work — and your product.
Culture Fit In a Nutshell
The word ‘culture' in culture fit is, naturally, the organizational culture. The organization’s culture is best defined by Edgar Shein (1992): "cultural organization is a pattern of shared basic assumptions that was learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, be taught to new members…". The values don’t come in a certain shape and form and are far from being articulately worded or even fully acknowledged, for that matter. Organizational culture, therefore, is largely made up of values that lie outside of individuals' awareness. Yet deciphering and naming those values can help predict behaviors and define preferable traits in candidates.
Organizational culture is what keeps the business together as a well-rounded unit in the market. It is the personality of the company. If culture is pronounced and worked on, then retention rates and employee satisfaction are higher. Furthermore, if your company has a pronounced set of values it adheres to, it is easier to associate oneself with the brand. Organizational culture makes business solid, expressive and human. However, company culture is not enforced by the top management. It is shaped by every member of the team, and so organizations that aspire to grow and develop should pay close attention to what their reputation is and what people they are hiring.
Organizational culture is what keeps the business together as a well-rounded unit in the market. It is the personality of the company. If culture is pronounced and worked on, then retention rates and employee satisfaction are higher. Furthermore, if your company has a pronounced set of values it adheres to, it is easier to associate oneself with the brand. Organizational culture makes business solid, expressive and human. However, company culture is not enforced by the top management. It is shaped by every member of the team, and so organizations that aspire to grow and develop should pay close attention to what their reputation is and what people they are hiring.
What Exactly Does an Employee Fit In For?
Since when has the term ‘culture fit' been around? Its history goes back as far as the 1980s to Lauren River’s article Guess Who Doesn’t Fit In At Work. The term stems from the idea that if you hire people based on how their beliefs coordinate with the company’s beliefs, employees will grow loyal to the company and perform better.
Today there are many views on culture fit, and much research has already been carried out to explore the topic. Both in academia and in business, many approaches have been developed to help organizations embed culture fit in their hiring practices. One leading authority on culture fit at work is The Society For Industrial and Organizational Psychology. The Society published a collection of studies on the topic called Perspectives on Organizational Fit which provides an overview on existing academic outlook on the matter. As for more business-oriented voices, Gallup, the American public opinion research institute and management consulting, contributes a lot to HR and discusses new trends in the field of culture fit. Their website is a great knowledge base where you can start your own research and find solid applications.
Today there are many views on culture fit, and much research has already been carried out to explore the topic. Both in academia and in business, many approaches have been developed to help organizations embed culture fit in their hiring practices. One leading authority on culture fit at work is The Society For Industrial and Organizational Psychology. The Society published a collection of studies on the topic called Perspectives on Organizational Fit which provides an overview on existing academic outlook on the matter. As for more business-oriented voices, Gallup, the American public opinion research institute and management consulting, contributes a lot to HR and discusses new trends in the field of culture fit. Their website is a great knowledge base where you can start your own research and find solid applications.
The approach to talent sourcing and hiring where the (to many) ephemeral concept of culture fit is considered key has had its fair share of criticism and misinterpretation. The most common accusation against the approach is personal bias.
More often than not culture fit is seen as a vibe click with the recruiter. The careful analytic and statistical consideration behind every new hire in the framework of culture fit has grown into fast, irrational opinions that come from ‘Would I want to hang out with them?'. Clearly, the organizational decision boils down to a personal perspective of the recruiter or the hiring manager. "It's like you were on a date. You kind of know when there’s a match", Rivera quotes a member of a law firm in her article Guess Who Doesn’t Fit In At Work. Organizational values and how a candidate doesn’t fit in are often summoned when there is no chemistry between a candidate and a recruiter. Of course, it could be attributed to the fact that in team-intense industries one has to like their teammates and hiring someone you find odd may cause problems somewhere down the road. However, one’s personal likes and dislikes should be overridden by the organization’s priorities when hiring and letting candidates through the recruitment funnel.
What’s more, culture fit has become weaponized by companies, and the term is used as an excuse that hides the fact that a candidate didn’t live up to the interviewer’s dream of a perfect applicant. This has led the term to be the embodiment of unconscious bias. After all, what exact value of the company did a candidate not align with? How many values out of the total number is the applicant expected to align with to pass? Companies do not often provide measured and exact feedback on culture misfit.
Mel Hennigan, the member of the Society for Human Resource Management, perfectly explains the root cause of the belief that culture fit is simply masked bias: "But few companies have gone through the rigor of making their "culture fit" objective and measurable. Rather, HR professionals and hiring managers have simply adopted a new term for explaining hiring rationale that otherwise might be classified as invalid," she writes on SHRM.org.
More often than not culture fit is seen as a vibe click with the recruiter. The careful analytic and statistical consideration behind every new hire in the framework of culture fit has grown into fast, irrational opinions that come from ‘Would I want to hang out with them?'. Clearly, the organizational decision boils down to a personal perspective of the recruiter or the hiring manager. "It's like you were on a date. You kind of know when there’s a match", Rivera quotes a member of a law firm in her article Guess Who Doesn’t Fit In At Work. Organizational values and how a candidate doesn’t fit in are often summoned when there is no chemistry between a candidate and a recruiter. Of course, it could be attributed to the fact that in team-intense industries one has to like their teammates and hiring someone you find odd may cause problems somewhere down the road. However, one’s personal likes and dislikes should be overridden by the organization’s priorities when hiring and letting candidates through the recruitment funnel.
What’s more, culture fit has become weaponized by companies, and the term is used as an excuse that hides the fact that a candidate didn’t live up to the interviewer’s dream of a perfect applicant. This has led the term to be the embodiment of unconscious bias. After all, what exact value of the company did a candidate not align with? How many values out of the total number is the applicant expected to align with to pass? Companies do not often provide measured and exact feedback on culture misfit.
Mel Hennigan, the member of the Society for Human Resource Management, perfectly explains the root cause of the belief that culture fit is simply masked bias: "But few companies have gone through the rigor of making their "culture fit" objective and measurable. Rather, HR professionals and hiring managers have simply adopted a new term for explaining hiring rationale that otherwise might be classified as invalid," she writes on SHRM.org.
Criticism of Culture Fit
How Was The Term Coined?
Culture add is a new development of culture fit that is believed to help overcome its disadvantages. The three key ideas behind culture add are evolving culture, difference in ideas and diversity & inclusion.
Evolving culture instead of stagnation culture is meant to anticipate potential groupthink and lack of innovation. When you hire those just like you, you multiply in number, but you may not grow in quality. The core of every HR decision is whether the candidate is able to bring the company to a new level. Perspectives and fresh viewpoints are at the center of hiring decisions.
Differing ideas and corresponding values are what connects culture and add to culture fit. A candidate is still expected to share values, which suggests a strong person-organization fit. However, their backgrounds and views on business processes should be new and different from what the company has been relying on so far.
Last but not least, diversity stands for minimal similarity. What should be shared is core beliefs of the organization and the candidate; but nothing more. The school they went to, music they like, the degree they received should not influence their chances of getting hired. New perspectives breeds innovation and better problem-solving.
Evolving culture instead of stagnation culture is meant to anticipate potential groupthink and lack of innovation. When you hire those just like you, you multiply in number, but you may not grow in quality. The core of every HR decision is whether the candidate is able to bring the company to a new level. Perspectives and fresh viewpoints are at the center of hiring decisions.
Differing ideas and corresponding values are what connects culture and add to culture fit. A candidate is still expected to share values, which suggests a strong person-organization fit. However, their backgrounds and views on business processes should be new and different from what the company has been relying on so far.
Last but not least, diversity stands for minimal similarity. What should be shared is core beliefs of the organization and the candidate; but nothing more. The school they went to, music they like, the degree they received should not influence their chances of getting hired. New perspectives breeds innovation and better problem-solving.
Culture Add
Aleksandra Brazhnikova
So you have made the decision: you want to hire for culture, not purely hard and soft skills. Where do you start? What kind of questions can you ask to find out if the candidate fits in or adds on?
Do your homework. First and foremost, you want to assess what your company’s values are. You may not be able to think in beautiful words just yet, and you may not be able to stuff them in a poetic logo right away. But finding even simple words to speak about your business and its goals and vision of the future is enough to lay the foundation.
Get concrete. ‘Be a conscientious worker' is too broad and abstract. What is a conscientious worker to you in numbers? Is it the amount of positions they have held prior to applying for your company? Or is it their average time with a company in their past workplaces? Maybe, you want to consider if they have ever tried starting their own business? In other words, after each and every meeting, you want to have your notes with you and a clear numerical score the candidate had, based on your evaluation of organizational values and their alignment.
Ask the right questions. If you look up ‘questions for culture fit' on the internet, you will be hit with thousands of lists ready to be used. It is okay to rely on free samples out there, although there are paid options as well.
With free questions, consider starting out with these sections: Motivation & Excitement for Work, Professional Goals & Business Insights, Collaboration, Self-Awareness & Personal Growth, Stress Endurance, Leadership & Management Style, Learning Style, Past Challenges. The bad news is, where there are sample questions, there are sample answers. So chances are, some candidates will come in ‘prepared', so be ready to dig through recitals straight into the heart of your interviewee. This simple pen-and-paper option is perfect for modest hiring operations — not only does it save money, but it also helps you get into the swing of conscious recruitment.
As for paid questionnaires and tool kits, there are multiple solutions out there. One is Harver and its Cultural Fit Assessment, MyCulture with their on-demand survey builder, and HighMatch with its Cultural Fit Capability. These platforms help run a full-fledged culture fit test so you can scale your hiring operations and assess multiple candidates at once. The platforms significantly automate routine work which saves time and resources. However, you want to come prepared to the platform with an established corporate culture and clearly outlined values to make the most out of such solutions.
Do your homework. First and foremost, you want to assess what your company’s values are. You may not be able to think in beautiful words just yet, and you may not be able to stuff them in a poetic logo right away. But finding even simple words to speak about your business and its goals and vision of the future is enough to lay the foundation.
Get concrete. ‘Be a conscientious worker' is too broad and abstract. What is a conscientious worker to you in numbers? Is it the amount of positions they have held prior to applying for your company? Or is it their average time with a company in their past workplaces? Maybe, you want to consider if they have ever tried starting their own business? In other words, after each and every meeting, you want to have your notes with you and a clear numerical score the candidate had, based on your evaluation of organizational values and their alignment.
Ask the right questions. If you look up ‘questions for culture fit' on the internet, you will be hit with thousands of lists ready to be used. It is okay to rely on free samples out there, although there are paid options as well.
With free questions, consider starting out with these sections: Motivation & Excitement for Work, Professional Goals & Business Insights, Collaboration, Self-Awareness & Personal Growth, Stress Endurance, Leadership & Management Style, Learning Style, Past Challenges. The bad news is, where there are sample questions, there are sample answers. So chances are, some candidates will come in ‘prepared', so be ready to dig through recitals straight into the heart of your interviewee. This simple pen-and-paper option is perfect for modest hiring operations — not only does it save money, but it also helps you get into the swing of conscious recruitment.
As for paid questionnaires and tool kits, there are multiple solutions out there. One is Harver and its Cultural Fit Assessment, MyCulture with their on-demand survey builder, and HighMatch with its Cultural Fit Capability. These platforms help run a full-fledged culture fit test so you can scale your hiring operations and assess multiple candidates at once. The platforms significantly automate routine work which saves time and resources. However, you want to come prepared to the platform with an established corporate culture and clearly outlined values to make the most out of such solutions.
Assessing Culture Fit & Culture Add In Candidates
Culture fit and culture add are exciting tools to help you turn your recruitment operations into mindful talent sourcing processes. Navigating yourself solely with skills across hundreds of talented applicants may not be all that beneficial. The smartest candidate may simply not be able to fit in or add on to the team in place. As Peter Drucker put it in his Harvard Business Review article, "To work with any organization whose value system is unacceptable or incompatible with one’s own condemns a person to both frustration and low performance." That’s why looking at soft skills and person-organization alignment is important. It affects both sides, the employee and their satisfaction, loyalty and output and the company with its goals and performance that is tightly connected with retention. Seeing beyond a resume and into a person, understanding beyond what’s personal and judging with what’s organizational is key to building the best teams that are sure to move your business forward.
Joon EasyStaff today for fast and secure contractor management worldwide: https://easystaff.io/
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Conclusion
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