Can you recruit a candidate based on culture fit?

Your company culture is important for your business environment. Helping to determine how positive your staff feel about coming into work, forming workplace relationships with their colleagues and generally feeling motivated and productive.

Often, it’s your people who define your culture.

Establishing the foundations of a working environment where company values are adopted and practised. But your people also help to define how welcoming your workplace is to new starters, guests and other stakeholders. Establishing this type of warm, friendly workplace can make the difference between a company where people want to work and one where people are keen to leave and look for something new.

In this article we discuss the topic of the importance of culture fit and hiring a candidate based on culture fit.

Culture fit definition

Cultural fit means finding workers who match your company culture. Candidates don’t need to be a perfect fit at the interview stage, but you should be confident that they will be able to adapt to the core values of your business.

However, you must tread carefully when basing your hiring decision on culture fit alone. This type of decision can quickly turn into an issue of discrimination. More on this is discussed below…

Why is culture fit important to employers and company culture?

Hiring a good culture fit ensures your team works well together and can help to foster a positive attitude in the workplace. In fact, getting culture fit wrong could cost your business between 50-60% of the person’s annual salary, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). 

For hiring managers, it is a consideration usually made towards the final stages of hiring and can sometimes determine the decision between two candidates.

The benefits of hiring for cultural fit

In most cases, hiring someone based on company fit won’t be the only thing you consider. But when it comes down to two candidates who are similar on paper, assessing how they match your company values is a good way to find the better fit.

There are many benefits to hiring for cultural fit, including:

• Improved employee engagement

• Increased staff retention

• Collaboration and teamwork

• Better Communication

As members of your team work in the same way and have similar values, they will be able to work better together and be happier in their role.

Look at Duolingo for example. They’re placed importance on culture fit during their hiring process, and it has paid off.

The language learning app has gone viral for all the right reasons in recent years. Making others envious of the portrayed culture the business is proud to show off across social media. The CEO himself, Luis von Ahn is quoted as saying “We’re looking for people who have fun working,”,…“That really matters [because] we want both our products and our company culture to be fun.”

It seems when you take the right approach to hiring the right people for your business, not only do your staff benefit but so does your business.

The issues of culture fit

Despite all the benefits though, there are pitfalls to avoid when hiring for cultural fit. When taking a narrow view, your team can become too similar. While this boosts confidence it can reduce creative problem solving.

And more seriously, efforts to find a good fit could be seen as discriminatory, if not implemented correctly.

This happens when attempts to hire those that will match your company’s values slips into just hiring people who act and think alike—sacrificing diversity.

You can avoid this by following a well-defined interview structure. Ensure you focus on the individual’s values and how they relate to your company’s goals.

Is hiring a candidate based on culture fit legal?

There are certainly blurred lines when considering the legalities of hiring a candidate based on their culture fit. If you are basing this on their attitudes towards work, their work style, communication methods and ways of working, this is legal.

It becomes an issue of the law, when you use the term “culture fit” to reject candidates based on protected characteristics. This, under the Equality Act 2010, is a form of discrimination and is illegal. Rejected candidates who believe they didn’t get the job based on their age, race, sex (for example) could raise a complaint of discrimination and take your business to an employment tribunal.

A real-world case study:

An employment tribunal recently concluded a debate around the term “team vibe”. Used by an employer to determine the best candidate for two roles they were hiring for.

The case was focused on a complaint by a Russian candidate for a marketing role. The Russian job applicant made a claim of race discrimination, saying the ‘vibe’ the employer wanted was someone who was sociable and liked going to the pub which is a British stereotype; as a Russian person, she is more restrained as she comes from a cultural background were going to the pub is less common. The employer chose a British/Colombian candidate for the role.

Despite this case making it to court, the judge ruled there was no discrimination. However, they did re-iterate the point that employers must be cautious during the hiring process. Considering the risks of discrimination when looking for a cultural fit.

Had this been a case of religious discrimination, where the candidate’s religion prohibits drinking, there would have been a much higher risk of discrimination.  

How to assess cultural fit legally

To ensure you stay compliant with the law, introduce a routine selection of culture fit questions into your interview process. This will standardise the way you measure a cultural fit test and avoid unconscious bias.

Cultural fit interview questions:

Here are some of the best interview questions for cultural fit:

• What type of work environment are you most productive in?

• Do you prefer working alone or as part of a team?

• What attracted you to this role?

• What does your ideal workday look like?

• Give an example of a time you put forward a new idea at work. What was the response to your idea and how did you respond?

• Tell me about the most stressful situation you faced at work. What happened and how did you handle it?

Value-based interview questions should be open-ended. The aim of them is to find out how the candidate works best and whether their values align with the business’s.

You will need to be clear on what your company values are before you can assess how well potential hires meet them. But spending time to get a clear picture of how they will fit into your organisational culture can save you from any surprises on their first day.

A quick summary

When considering culture fit during the hiring process, consider:

·         What your company culture and values are

·         The style of working you prioritise in a staff member

·         How to avoid making a bias decision

·         What discrimination is and the laws around it

·         The right approach to asking culture fit questions during an interview

Get help with company culture today with BrightHR

Defining your company culture allows you to build a better, more engaged team using cultural fit assessments.

But it’s easy to make mistakes if you don’t follow the correct process. And those mistakes could cost you more than the issues you were originally trying to fix.

When it comes to hiring a new team member or defining your culture, BrightAdvice can help to make sure you don’t make any mistakes.

Our expert employment law advice service gives you a direct line to qualified legal experts, designed with smaller businesses in mind, to answer your HR problems. Book in a free demo today to see just how easy it is to get the answers you need. Give us a call on 0800 783 2806.