Hiring for Culture Fit is Negatively Impacting Your Organization
There continues to be a trend in hiring for culture fit over skills. This isn't good! While hiring for culture fit is still an area that needs to be addressed, this shouldn't be the focus during the hiring process and this definitely shouldn't be the determining factor for making the hiring decision.
Through the interview process, organizations should be focused on facts such as skills and experience, then identify core values to interview on as well. Remain consistent through all interviews and standardize hiring processes to increase the diverse talent community.
Hiring for culture fit is decreasing your diverse talent and increases unconscious bias in areas such as similar backgrounds, ethnic groups, and experience. This is creating a hiring process that will emphasize hiring like-minded individuals, impacting those who don't fit into this box and resulting in excluding a huge network of talent, decreasing diversity hiring which could lead to discrimination.
This type of culture fit hiring leads to listening to your gut, which is biased. Hire for skills and the candidate's ability to do the job. When hiring for culture fit, this could create a loop of like-minded individuals, decreasing new creative ideas and different points of view, and again eliminating top talent that might be neurodivergent individuals or those who are underrepresented such as race, gender, etc. Historically this has been proven through research that this type of mentality leads to the increased selection of neurotypical white males.
Pro-Tip: Conduct a skills-based interview first, can this person do the job? Then evaluate the candidate's core values and alignment with the company. Hiring for 'fit' is where it gets cloudy, whereas hiring for shared values and skillsets can improve DE&I hiring efforts.
A call to action to employers! Job descriptions shouldn't be written for their dream candidate. They should be emphasizing the actual business needs, with clear 3-5 requirements that are necessary to perform the job. Job descriptions should have inclusive language and should include any physical requirements.
Interviewing should be inclusive and facts based. Can this person perform the job we are hiring for? Do they meet the minimum qualifications and share the same values the company does? Hiring should not be subjective; it needs to be fact-based.
Why is this important?
According to SHRM, only 25% of businesses have explicit goals for hiring people with disabilities.
When hiring for culture fit, this is creating a close-minded approach to hiring which is likely going to impact those who might be a bit different. Often neurodivergent talent won't fit in this "box" that interviewers are looking for. This is because sometimes there is a lack of eye contact, communication such as the inability to small talk, potential career gaps, or experience differences. These aren't red flags, these are opportunities for employers to change their recruitment process to be more inclusive.
In 2018 study by Accenture, AAPD, and Disability found that the companies that hired neurodivergent people achieved 28% higher revenue, twice the net income, and 30% higher economic profit margins compared with other companies in the same sample. When your hiring process is excluding these individuals because of the desire to hire for culture fit over skills, this is impacting revenue and profit margins. This is also decreasing the innovation, creativity, and diverse workforce within the organization.
A company's culture and values should be the guiding light through interviews, but not the deciding factor. Does the candidate have the skills necessary to do the job? Does this person have shared cultural values that align with the company?
