Fixing hiring with Fit, Alignment & Add

Several years ago there was a wave within the HR community calling on people to stop hiring for “Culture Fit” and instead hire for “Culture Add”.

Too many leaders were hiding behind the language of “Culture Fit” but were actually looking for…
👨‍🎤 Personality fit
👩‍🍼 Background fit
🏫 Education fit
🍻 Social fit

“Culture Fit” had been crudely boiled down to the shortcut: “Would I have a pint with this person?”

Not only does this tend to disadvantage people from marginalised backgrounds because of our inherent similarity bias – but it’s also just a bad metric for hiring good talent.

So the HR community was right to suggest new language to signal a shift, to highlight what was actually going on when people said “Culture Fit”.

It was well intentioned but I think it over-corrected. Because you do want to hire people that are going to fit certain aspects of your culture. Pretending that you’re solely looking for “Culture Add” masks the culture that already exists. At its worst, it’s incredibly unfair to the applicant.

Especially if they leave a job to join your organisation and then find out the reality of the culture – of how things actually get done – doesn’t mesh with how they work best. You can’t be everything to everyone – and you shouldn’t want to be.

However, if you want to have a thriving company, you need to break the bias and be intentional about creating an inclusive environment.

So you need to be honest about your culture, firm with certain aspects and flexible with others.

You need to balance “Fit”, “Add” and a new take on culture that we call “Alignment” – all of which contribute to your organisation’s overarching identity, all of which need to be taken into account when making a new hire.

Let’s take a look at them below.


CULTURE FIT

Candidates need to Fit the immutable aspects of the company such as values and mission. 

The mission part is fairly straightforward. You don’t need everyone to love what you do, but you do need them to believe in it enough to care about doing a good job.

(Otherwise it would be like hiring Ron Swanson to lead a government department or appointing a famously anti-regulation Elon Musk to a regulatory position in the US government…)

It’s also important that people share similar values. Again, they don’t need to embody every single value, but they should align with the core values that drive how your organisation operates.

For example, if your organisation values performance and efficiency even over stability and tradition, you want to hire people who thrive in fast-paced, results-driven environments.

Or if your culture prioritises collaboration and relationships even over individual achievements, you need people who genuinely prefer working as part of a team and sharing success over individual bonuses.

The key is to identify the non-negotiables – the aspects of your values that define how work gets done and what success looks like. Otherwise you risk creating splintered sub-cultures in different teams, leading to misaligned priorities and, ultimately, dysfunction.

How to consider Culture Fit:

  • Flexibility: Don’t immediately discount someone if they don’t answer as expected – remember these are reductive contrived hypotheticals! This could be an ‘add/alignment’ opportunity.
  • MissionGet a sense of why they want to join your organisation, what is it about what you do that motivates them?
  • Values: Ask for examples when they’ve been proudest at work, or what they consider an achievement. This will give you a sense of what they value most without asking a leading question. You want to avoid them knowing your values and repeating them back.
  • Misalignment: Pose a series of hypotheticals which pit two or more values against each other to see how they would handle the situations and if that broadly fits the type of behaviours you want exhibited.

CULTURE ALIGNMENT

You want Alignment on your cultural operating system. 

Your operating system determines how things get done. However, much like a computer operating system, it can be updated. It’s not fixed forever.

It is made up of things like communication norms, decision-making styles, structure and power dynamics.

These should emerge from the values but aren’t set in stone – they could evolve and find different expressions if there is collective agreement.

You want to be honest and upfront about these aspects so someone joining understands the current culture and can decide if how they work best will work with the current articulation of the culture. 

You want broad alignment but a healthy amount of disagreement, we want people that might challenge the current way of doing things to improve the system.

How to consider Culture Alignment:

  • Evolution: You want to be open to evolving your culture so what could this person bring that would stretch and improve your operating system? Ask how they would do things differently, get a sense of the positive misalignment.
  • Understand: The first thing you need to do is understand your culture operating system. If it’s invisible to you, you can be damn sure it will be impossible to navigate for a new joiner!
  • Tensions: What would people find difficult if they’ve come from a very different operating system? Ask questions that tease out the difference. It’s also okay to directly ask how they think they would manage with the transition.
  • Adaptability: This is one of the most important traits in the modern world of work and will be essential to a new joiner thriving. Pose hypotheticals to get a sense of their ability and comfort with adapting.

CULTURE ADD

Culture Add is all about the unique perspectives, experiences and expertises a new hire can add to the culture.

Every team requires a healthy mix of differences. It’s essential for avoiding groupthink, questioning assumptions and coming up with new and innovative approaches to problem-solving. 

Healthy disagreement – one which challenges the default and improves processes – should be encouraged and celebrated.

However, you need to understand the current make-up of your team and what your new hire will bring to the current set up, to ensure the best possible mix of ways of working and thinking.

How to consider Culture Add:

  • Bias: What assumptions and biases am I making which aren’t relevant to whether this person would be a good hire?
  • Makeup of current teamWhat strengths, skills and perspectives already exist in the organisation?
  • Potential blindspots: Where are we lacking diversity in thought, experience or approach?
  • Future needsWhat gaps might we need to fill to meet future challenges or goals?
  • Team dynamics: How will this person’s style and perspective enhance or challenge the current team dynamic?

All of this should be seen as a guide, not a rubric. I can’t give you the exact weighting you should ascribe to each section, nor are there rules that should not be broken. 

The aim is to give a more holistic approach to hiring that takes into consideration your company culture and enables new people to bring the best of themselves and their experience whilst ensuring they can actually flourish.