Cyndy Trivella, Managing Partner, TalentCulture.
getty
Have you ever been in a meeting where the boss tells everyone their ideas and what they want to happen and everyone else just agrees with them? I have, and the end results are not always good for business. Though this environment could be described as a company culture of like minds, it falls short of being diverse or effective.
Why does cultural fit no longer work?
When cultural fit first came around, recruiting people to fit into the organization’s mold made sense. The thought behind this was that if they think like me, see things like me and react to situations the way I do, they will naturally help the company grow and prosper. But that has come to light as being an outdated policy.
Because cultural fit is normally about conformity and alikeness, when it’s practiced, it builds a homogeneous workforce. However, the drawback of a homogeneous workforce can be detrimental to business. It can create:
• Blind spots, where information/knowledge is lacking
• Groupthink, which discourages creativity or individual responsibility
• Poor decision-making that could affect the business’s bottom line
That’s why there’s a growing trend called "culture add." When companies hire with culture add in mind, they bring on people who may see the world differently and have different points of view. Wise business leaders encourage these employees to share their knowledge because they desire growth and improvement.
In essence, these new ideas have not been tried before and—when seen as something that can bring about improvement within the organization, even if it is against what was always done or is an uncomfortable subject to bring up—the company is open to listening and acting on the advice.
Simply put, culture add means that "companies are willing to step outside their comfort zone and hire those who don’t look like them or talk like them. It also means that they will take the time to understand the value of hiring diverse thinkers and try to capitalize on opportunities to stretch the organization’s thinking."
How to shift from a culture fit mentality to a culture add mindset.
For the many reasons that companies continue to practice culture fit, such as it’s just easier to practice or simple laziness, business leaders want to shift their focus and step outside the norm. They want to begin a strategy that creates a cultural change.
That means first asking hard questions about the hiring procedures at the organization and being honest with the answers. When companies have that unpleasant conversation with themselves and their workforce, they can learn much about what is currently happening and where change needs to be made. They may discover several issues.
The interview process is discriminative.
Popular questions in the past that were used to screen candidates for best fit now should be reconsidered and often abandoned. Do you remember when some of the interview questions that companies asked involved “What is your favorite song?” or “If you could have just one superhero power, what would it be?”
Though these questions are fun, when used to evaluate a person, they potentially can disqualify someone for the wrong reasons. Better questions to ask would fall under behavioral questions that reflect how a person would react to a situation or questions that evaluate a person’s skill level.
Hiring managers have unconscious biases.
Very few people outwardly work to be discriminative. But it happens a lot of times when someone is interviewing a person, and if that person comes from the same background or has a common interest, the hiring manager is more inclined to connect and hire the candidates.
It is important to remind managers to focus on a person’s skill set and talent when interviewing and not to be distracted by someone having similar qualities to themselves. The notion behind the practice of culture add is to look at a person and recognize what they can bring to the organization or add to the culture that doesn't already exist but can bring value.
Recruiters are hesitant to speak up.
Recruiters should be educated and given the power to ask questions about why one candidate was hired over another. Many factors go into a person’s decisions, and if someone appears to be leaning to one side, there needs to be freedom to speak up.
Plus, recruiters should have the approval from management to push back on a hiring manager if they feel that a candidate is being overlooked because they do not fit the mold. A great tool to help recruiters with this when working with hiring managers is to use a rubric-based scoring system when evaluating candidates. This creates defining expectations prior to the hiring process to reduce the potential for bias.
Why adopt culture add now?
We have seen so many changes in business these last few years. Without embracing the benefits that culture add can provide companies through innovative ideas and challenges to the status quo, it could be difficult to remain competitive.
Yet, I’m excited to see how culture add continues to build on company diversity and inclusion through improved hiring practices. As Patty McCord best described it in her detailed article in HBR, “Making great hires is about recognizing great matches—and often they’re not what you’d expect.”
Companies like Facebook and Pandora are already working to build on culture add with changes in their approach to the interview process and staffing. When companies look to challenge themselves and look at the possibilities with people who think outside the box, the sky is the limit. Has your company considered a culture-add approach?
Forbes Human Resources Council is an invitation-only organization for HR executives across all industries. Do I qualify?
