Dive Brief:
- Hiring managers today routinely cite "cultural fit" as a critical factor in the hiring process, even ahead of experience and education, but it might be a good idea to tread carefully, according to Fortune.
- Author Katherine Reynolds Lewis writes that too much focus on cultural fit can easily create a discrimination situation.
- Reynolds Lewis notes that when hiring managers or top executives see a potential hire who “doesn’t fit in,” it could reflect the idea that the person's race, gender, class, sexual orientation, or education could be what they have in mind.
Dive Insight:
It's "unfair and potentially illegal" but it also could reduce productivity and innovation. Research has shown that diverse work teams improve those two metrics, Reynolds Lewis writes, so if your recruiting process doesn't allow for diversity, it could be overall bad for the bottom line.
She cites a Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management study of top investment banks, management consultancies and law firms that found job offers were heavily influenced by interviewers’ perception of fit, as they "hired candidates they’d most enjoy having a beer with or being stuck with in an airport." By seeking “playmates,” they overlooked more skilled professionals with greater long-term potential at the company, the study concluded.
The solution, Reynolds Lewis writes, is to forget culture fit. Rather, employers should should reduce the influence of "personal fit"—how the interviewer and candidate are similar—and better clarify the employer's cultural values. Above all, she writes, limit how much "fit" can affect hiring decisions.
