In the last decade or so, more and more companies have started to prioritize building mission driven teams. By virtue of this, their recruitment strategies also shifted towards hiring for “culture fit” to ensure that every potential candidate that they are considering hiring will buy into their mission, vision, and values.

On its face, this isn’t a bad idea, as you certainly want your future employees to feel driven and motivated by the work that they do. But, it’s also important to understand where the concept of culture fit came from, and how it can lead to dark patterns in hiring.

In the 1980s, business leaders began introducing a new awareness to the term “office culture.” Initially, this meant viewing and valuing employees as human beings, and not as just another cog in the machine. These businesses realized that employees were likely to stay longer with the company and be more productive if they felt a sense of belonging to the team.

However, overtime this gradually shifted towards managers looking almost entirely at the culture fit of candidates. This approach meant that they would overwhelmingly favour candidates who they believed they “could have a beer with,” and excluding potential candidates - even highly promising ones - who do not fit the current cultural mould of the organization.

While you certainly want your future employees to feel comfortable with the team, there is one significant pitfall to hiring solely based on culture fit: it can unintentionally reinforce subjective biases. Statements such as, “we didn’t click,” or, “I’ll know the right candidate when I meet them,” indicate that the hiring decision is largely based on a subjective assessment as opposed to the candidate’s ability to deliver measurable results. This subjective bias can unconsciously help foster a corporate monoculture that ultimately harms workers, candidates, and businesses.

So, how can managers and companies avoid the trap of focusing on hiring based on culture fit?

The easiest approach is to adopt a:

Culture Add Mindset

In a sharp contrast to the culture fit mindset, which seeks to hire and retain more of what is already working for you (and can result in the company falling into the competency trap), a culture add mindset instead focuses on looking at what elements are missing from the organization, and finding candidates who can address those gaps. In order words, a culture fit mindset aims to preserve a sense of familiarity without rocking the boat, while a culture add mindset actively seeks out those who not only value the company’s mission, vision, and values, but who can also bring a fresh perspective and can positively contribute to the company’s goals.

What this means is that the hiring question shifts from, “what is this person lacking?” to, “what can this candidate bring to the table that we don’t already have?” So, what are some steps you can take in order to make that shift towards a culture add mindset?

More of the same is less

One of the most useful pieces of advice I’ve ever received is, “just because I’m a manager, that doesn’t mean that I will necessarily have all or even the right answers.” I have always taken this to mean, seek out different opinions and perspectives, and add them to your own. And, just because you have a way of doing things that seems to work, that doesn’t mean there might not be a better way of doing it that you may not have thought of.

As someone who has been both a hiring manager and a recruiter, I’ve realized that there is a tendency to hire those you are comfortable with, which can result in a team that looks more like you than it should. This can end up with a team of “yes men” as opposed to a team who will challenge you for the better.

Recruit from outside your field

Delisa Alexander of Red Hat put it best when she said,

“Diversity is the opposite of sameness, and sameness is the enemy of innovation”

— Delisa Alexander

Sameness can so easily make its way into every level of an organization, influencing the decision-making process. Ultimately, this unintentional bias towards the same can even impact the final end-product. For example, in the AI community, the lack of diversity has become a challenge in the way of improving facial recognition software.

Most companies tend to have an employee referral program with some form of tagline, such as, “great people know great people. However, most employees will refer candidates from their existing work, school, and social networks, who may have similar backgrounds and experiences as they do, and likely, the rest of the team.

It’s tempting to hire someone because you think they’ll get quickly up to speed and because they fit the company as it currently exists. However, you instead want a workforce that’s inspired to learn, grow beyond their current skills, and is willing to adapt as the company and business landscape changes.

In the 1970s, Jerry and Monique Sternin were doing nutritional research with Save the Children, and stumbled upon the concept known as positive deviancy. In short, positive deviants are candidates and employees who get the results you desire, but in a seemingly unconventional manner. Of course candidates for a specific role need to have the requisite hard and technical skills in order to be successful, but different professional and educational backgrounds can and often do offer up surprisingly transferrable soft skills and insights.

Ultimately, aligning culture and company values with potential hires will always be critical in ensuring the success of any organization. However, when there is such a heavy emphasis placed on culture fit, you run the risk of losing out on great talent and fresh perspectives that will allow your company to stay competitive

Moving towards a culture add mindset shifts the recruitment efforts from defensive and reactive to a more proactive approach, where you are constantly scanning for potential skills gaps and addressing those needs before they become a problem. It’s important to look at how a candidate’s individuality and differences from the existing team can be seen as a net positive, and is what makes your company ready for the future rather than being constrained by the past.