2 Mar 2022 · 5 min
Hiring only for cultural fit creates a homogeneous workforce that stifles diversity and reinforces existing flaws. Instead, look for culture add: candidates who share core values but bring different perspectives that expand how your organization thinks. A company that hired only lacrosse players shows how narrow fit criteria backfire.
Hello there. So here's a little thought for the week, perhaps a bit of a challenge around hiring for cultural and values fit when you are looking to bring new people into your organization. Of course, it's become very trendy now. You know, we hire for values fit, we hire for culture fit. We want to, you know, hire people that fit into our culture straight away. My question is, and perhaps that bit of awareness that I keep talking about, holding up a mirror to ourselves and asking, should we seek that or not? Is that necessarily a good thing? Always hiring people that fit our culture like hand in glove. What do we lose when we don't have that tension in organizations? What do we lose? Do you end up with a bunch of droids who all think the same, who all act the same, who all do the same things in the same way? Is that good for your customers? Is it good for your people? Is there a true sense of growth among your employees? I just wonder if we need that tension in organizations. And if you don't have that tension, I wonder, are you simply strengthening the bad stuff that happens in your organization already? And perhaps, you know, maybe you're protecting the good. I don't know. But equally, we all talk about hiring more diversity. And I wonder if you keep hiring the same people that fit into the same culture that you've always had with the same values that you've always had, are you really going to attract a more diverse group of people? Are you really going to want to include that group of people in your thinking, in your products, in how you move your organization forward? I saw a really interesting quote in a piece I was reading online this week. And it goes like this: if you try to maintain your culture at all costs and you don't allow people to come and drive your culture forward, then you're not maximizing the potential of your business. So instead of hiring for culture and values fit, what about hiring for culture or values add, or culture or values stretch? What about hiring people who maybe aren't quite exactly a fit in your organization, not quite exactly a fit with your values? What about if you think of your needs as an organization and your culture and their needs as new people joining your organization as a bit of a Venn diagram? You on one side, them on the other, and a really nice bit of crossover in the middle. Of course, we need that crossover because we need them to be able to fit in, at least initially, with the other people that we have in our organization. We need them to be able to join existing teams and projects and programs and kind of slip in rather seamlessly into the work that you're doing already. But I just wonder, when you think about that Venn diagram idea and the potential it brings for them to bring perhaps the best bits of their values and their purpose and their culture and their background, what that could do for yours, how that could really help to grow the culture in your organization, the difference that that new and different thinking would make. So hiring somebody because they are almost a culture fit or almost a values fit. Maybe they're not exactly the same as us. Maybe they're not exactly the same as the person you thought you were going to hire. In fact, in the same article I read there, it said that this one particular company only hired people who played lacrosse because all of their MDs played lacrosse. And if you didn't play lacrosse, you didn't get hired. That's insane. However, it is worth thinking about perhaps how do we hire people, as I say, who aren't exactly the same as us, who aren't exactly the cultural fit, but maybe the cultural add or the cultural stretch that your organization might be looking for and might need. So just a wee thought there for this week to put into your head, to have a little think about, and perhaps the next time you're hiring somebody, to really have front of mind when you're thinking about what you need to get from that person to be, to be really helpful and useful and productive in your organization and for your teams.
