Skip To Content
A group of business people creating workplace culture looking at different photographs

Should You Hire For Culture Fit?

Hiring for “culture fit” has had some hot debate lately, with Human Resource experts advocating on both sides of the fence. When establishing your team you want to hire people that are just like you, right? Not necessarily – let’s look at what culture fit is and whether this is good for your business. A young adult taking a picture of graffiti on their phone | work place culture creates creativity

When hiring people that are just like you, what you get is a product with a very limited appeal. You’re catering your products and services to a very specific kind of person. Whenever you’re putting together a team, you want to find a diverse group of people that are adept at solving problems and doing great work.

There are two reasons that we use “diverse” here.

The first – and obvious – reason is that hiring a diverse range of employees results in products and services that a wider audience can relate to. Not to mention the fact that discriminating and not hiring people because of their background is a terrible thing to do and – in some cases – illegal.

The other reason is that everyone needs to have a diverse range of thinkers on their team. Different people see the world differently and they have different ways of solving problems. Change up your interview processes to get a good idea of how people think. Rather than hiring individuals who solve problems the way you do, hire individuals that take different approaches. You want those individuals that are able to think outside of the box and find solutions that you would never have considered. Diverse hiring processes promote the creation of innovative products and services.

Now we’ve explained why you need to have a diverse team, we’ll move on and look at why you need to hire for culture fit.

When we say “culture fit” we don’t mean hiring non-diverse team members. We’ve already established how important it is to hire a diverse range of individuals when putting a team together. Consider culture fit to be puzzle pieces going together to create a true masterpiece. Each puzzle piece is of a different shape and size. While some might not be a perfect fit, others are. When it’s all said and done though, what you have is something incredibly beautiful. Hiring for culture fit refers to hiring individuals that are able to effectively collaborate and communicate with each other to increase productivity. That doesn’t mean that everyone has to be the same, or that you have to hire great friends. What it means is that you want to avoid hiring people who dismiss ideas without contributing their own, talk down other members of the team, and make everyone else feel inferior. A group of business people creating workplace culture looking at different photographs On that note, you want to avoid hiring individuals that are going to bring negative attention to your company on social media. Your employees are a reflection of you, if an employee’s actions are inappropriate on social media, anyone connecting you and this employee will get the impression that you condone what they do. Hiring for culture fit means hiring individuals you would like to represent your company and hence support your brand. If you feel uncomfortable at the thought of having an employee announcing to the world that they work for you, then this is someone that you don’t want on your team. They will not be a good culture fit. If the person is a jerk that you can’t stand being around then they aren’t a good culture fit either. There’s a massive difference between having confidence in yourself and being arrogant, disruptive, and disrespectful. The most important thing to remember about culture fit hiring is to hire individuals who are able to respectfully disagree with others during the collaboration process, allowing everyone to openly voice their ideas and opinions. The team doesn’t need to sing songs and hold hands, and there are sure to be some heated discussions, but a positive team culture is created when everyone is respectful during such discussions. Hiring to fit your culture is essential in creating a team that will utilize their diverse backgrounds, experiences and the ways they think and see the world to identify creative and innovative solutions. Are you looking for an experienced recruiting partner who can deliver best fit candidates? RAI Resources can help. We offer custom staffing services to the greater Philadelphia, PA area as well as New Jersey.

We Want To Hear From You

How can our customized solutions help your business? Connect with our team to learn more.

RAI Resources Logo

1000 York Road
Suite 3C
Willow Grove, PA 19090
Phone: (215) 230-5555
info@rairesources.com