Cultural Fit – is it just code for unconscious bias

One of the common terms discussed on human resources, talent acquisition and leadership forums is unconscious bias. How to overcome it and benefit from the diversity of people and diversity of hiring is key.

Despite a plethora of egalitarian HR and recruitment initiatives promoting diversity and inclusion, many employers stick to the concept of new hires adhering to ‘cultural fit’. As a result, many suitably qualified applicants are often denied a job. There are significant amounts of research that a lack of diversity is due to biased hiring practices and not necessarily a lack of suitable talent in the marketplace.

So how does it all go wrong and is hiring on the basis of cultural fit simply a form of unconscious bias? Is it code for – if you want to join, you have to be like us?

The term culture fit has almost become a catch-all for the rejection of any candidates that don’t match the hiring team’s views of the ideal applicant. The reasoning is often vague and attributed to gut instinct.

As a general rule, people like people like themselves. Being different can make interviewers feel uncomfortable. It’s not necessarily age, gender, race, body type, personality, rather the many ways that someone comes across as different. It’s a completely natural process and is known as the Affinity Bias.

Affinity bias is an internal mechanism to reject candidates for a role based on subjective reasons, not competency or skill. What makes things worse is that the “lack of cultural fit” has little recourse for challenge within a business.

Not a good fit should no longer be grounds to reject an applicant. It’s essential that hiring managers should be able to validate lack of cultural fit with a quantifiable, non-discriminatory criteria

Affinity Bias does not stop at recruitment, it also affects internal promotions, task allocation and the acknowledgement of ideas in meetings.

Nevertheless, organisational culture has merit and is still a valuable consideration. It is completely correct to question whether a new hire will work well with the existing team and will believe in the company’s values and vision. This has benefits for both parties. When a new employee doesn’t fit the culture, they can often feel left-out, uncomfortable and have low job satisfaction.

So, should cultural fit be restricted solely to the candidate’s ability to conform and adapt the values and structure of an organisation? At what point does this line get crossed and cultural fit leaves no room for independent personality, thoughts, and behaviours?

Cultural fit is extremely tough to measure and it’s this difficulty that makes it so vague. It’s also more frequently used as a means to reject someone rather than hire someone.

Cultural fit should not supersede the drive for diversity, which has long been championed and recognised as a driver for improved innovation, business performance, productivity, capability for growth and talent acquisition and retention. Diversity should not take a hit because of cultural fit.

Matthew Woodall is an Energy sector Search specialist with over 20 years in the industry. For further insights and regular industry updates please connect with him on LinkedIn.