"Corporate Culture Fit" is a term that gets thrown around a lot today in discussions of HR strategies, as in ‘‘How well does this job applicant fit into our corporate culture?’’
Since I work with companies to improve their corporate cultures and have popularized the concept in my books, you'd think I'd be thrilled that this concept has gotten into the lingo.
Well, I am. And, I'm not. It depends on whether the term is used, or abused. Whether it's used as an opportunity to move forward together, or as a chance to play Lord Of The Flies.
The most straightforward and bias-free approach to creating a great--and profitable--culture is to hire for and embrace the traits needed for success in a position.
(Important caveats here: There are essential Equal Employment guidelines and practices to follow when you start to consider how to prospect for and select employees. The most basic is to apply any screening or other hiring-related process equitably across the board. But beyond that, it’s important to take steps to ensure that the actual screening itself is equitable. Addressing these concerns is both essential and far beyond the scope of the advice I am able to offer you here.)
Whatever particular culture fit strategy you pursue, to succeed you need to make room for diverse backgrounds, interests, work and learning styles, and need for work/life balance rather than endless happy hours with the boss and the "team." In this positive category, Starbucks, for example, comes to mind, as does Southwest Airlines (I'll discuss them a bit later in this article).
The concept, in other words, is one that requires nuanced implementation or it will backfire. 'Culture fit' is a valuable construct, but so is what diversity experts like Korn Ferry's Michael Hyter call "inclusion," which Hyter defines as "ensuring that there is a fair consideration for jobs for people who happen to be different.’’
Consider the following and I think you can see why this is hazardous territory:
First annual office toga party and beer chugging contest, Zappos HQ, Las Vegas - credit: Zappos Blog
• At Whole Foods, after a candidate has completed a lengthy probationary period (thirty to ninety days), the candidate’s coworkers vote to determine whether that candidate will be hired permanently, or be sent packing.
• Zappos uses an array of unique activities and questions (‘‘On a scale of 1 to 10, how weird are you?’’) in its hiring process to ensure each candidate is going to be ‘‘one of them.’’
My own assessment of well-intended strategies for testing ‘‘fit’’ is that they can be as hit or miss as black versus red on the roulette wheel. Peer evaluations, for example, run the risk of devolving into an assessment of whether a given candidate is a good drinking buddy or a worthy World of Warcraft adversary.
The psychological literature here is highly cautionary: People have an instinctive propensity to hire those who remind them of themselves, and one has to imagine that this tendency is even greater in people who aren’t trained as human resource professionals.
Properly handled, fit assessment always focuses on what is needed to be a contributing member of the organization. Anything that might stray into ‘‘hazing’’ territory is handled with care, forethought, and precision, as it is in the application process at Southwest Airlines.
Southwest, which, by the way, receives more applicants per spot than Harvard, uses scenario-simulation exercises that, while certainly stress inducing, use problem solving, creative thinking, and collaboration skills similar to what may later be required in-flight. Southwest also has the process and results monitored and reviewed by seasoned professionals. There’s no room here for hiring by fiat or hunch.
To return to diversity expert Michael Hyter:
The word ‘‘fit’’ in the absence of that support factor [fair consideration for jobs for people who happen to be different] can easily be misinterpreted as ‘‘being like me,’’ instead of what the position requires. Many organizations make the mistake of assuming that those tasked with selecting new hires are equipped to do so fairly because they are nice people or good workers. But failure to ensure the selection process is based on standard criteria with trained interviewers can result in unintentional bias in the spirit of looking for someone who’s a perceived ‘‘good fit.’’
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The incomparable wit Dorothy Parker was once asked the first thing she noticed in a person. Her answer? ‘‘Whether they’re a man or a woman.’’
Parker had a more direct connection to her subconscious than most of us, and in her quip lies the problem with ‘‘fit’’ in its raw state. You can substitute whatever obvious—and perhaps legally actionable—superficiality you like into Parker’s line, and you’ll find the unfortunate truth: Superficial differences and similarities are often the first things we notice. It’s important to get beyond them.
Micah Solomon is a corporate culture consultant, customer experience and customer service keynote speaker, and author. Reach Micah at 484-343-5881 or micah@micahsolomon.com
