Culture Fit Can Lead to a Homogenous Workforce
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
If you’ve ever wondered if your cultural fit is good enough to fill a job, the answer is no. The problem is that most organizations don’t seek a cultural fit rather than an appropriate skill set. But what exactly is culture fit? What are the reasons why hiring managers seek to hire individuals who are similar to them? It turns out that these people are less likely to be diverse, so companies may be creating a homogeneous workplace.
Unfortunately, hiring for cultural fit can actually disadvantage your company because it tends to recruit like-minded people rather than diverse ones. This can create a workforce that is both homogenous and uninviting. And it plays into unconscious biases. According to researchers Hillary Anger Elfenbein and Charles A. O’Reilly, hiring for culture fit can lead to a homogenous workforce.
When it comes to diversity, a company’s hiring process should be aligned with the company’s business goals. If the hiring process involves cultural fit, the hiring manager should have a formal process to evaluate the potential employee’s culture fit. However, without a structured measured quantified manner for evaluating for culture fit, you may wind up with a homogenous workforce. After all, it seems, at least in the US, that it’s human nature to hire for similarity. As a result, it can create an inhospitable environment.
At the same time, hiring for fit is complicated by the fact that both job hunters and employers are on good behavior during interviews. How can you assess for cultural fit if both employers and potential hires are on “good behavior” and being “people pleasers” to one another?
Ⓒ The Big Game Hunter, Inc., Asheville, NC 2022
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves career coaching, as well as executive job search coaching, job coaching, and interview coaching. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2300 episodes.
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