Cultural fit: how to find the right hire
Topic: HR Consulting for Startup
The term cultural fit became more and more well-known in the last years because recruiters realized why it’s important to assess the candidate’s suitability to the company culture. But next to many advantages, the cultural fit has also some drawbacks, like the lack of diversity and inclusion. Why else could cultural fit be harmful and how can you avoid that? Explore more in our article!
But let’s start from scratch: what is cultural fit?
Cultural fit is defined as individual attitudes, values, and beliefs, and its alignment with the culture of the company and the employer. The advance of cultural fit benefits both employees and companies: it has been proven that fulfillment in the workplace leads to better performance and attachment to the organization, so retention increases.
Cultural fit is used by recruitment teams to screen potential employees: communication style, attitude, and value are tested to verify whether they would fit into the team. Everything seems pretty straightforward. But the risk is the lack of diversity, which makes the working environment too homogenous.
What should you avoid?
The problem starts during the interview: recruiters could face affinity bias and could focus too much on looking for personal connections instead of identifying common values. Cultural fit is not about searching for someone with whom you would go for a beer but finding people with a personality that can do great at the job that needs to be done working with the team. The judgments shouldn’t be done based on personal gut feelings or preferences, otherwise, the risk is to have employees that behave and think like their managers.
Does that mean you need to forget about cultural fit?
Absolutely not. It is important to be aware of those potential pitfalls and approach them wisely during the recruitment process. Being aware of the core values of the company is the first step to verify whether a candidate identifies with those.
The cultural match doesn’t require an overlap: it’s important that the core values are shared, but there are plenty of other traits that can enrich the company culture and have a positive impact on the organization. Cultural fit has now been taken over by the cultural add: the goal is to hire people who can contribute and increase diversity and have a positive influence on organizations.
Research shows that millennials are particularly interested in values and they are more mindful about the type of employer they work for. This justifies the rise of highly-qualified inbound candidates for startup positions: one could think that startups do not yet have a strong reputation and brand awareness in comparison to big corporations, but the environment is really attractive because of the value behind the cause. Many young people want to part of it and to contribute to making a difference.
Cultural fit is a useful concept when finding the right hire, but recruiters should not decide based on their personal impressions and preferences but on analyzing whether the core values of the employer and of the candidate are shared. Once used properly, cultural fit enriches the work environment and helps the team to work better together!
Federica Viviani, Communications Specialist