The fallacy of the ‘culture fit’ phenomenon
Do better. People don't fit your mould, and you probably shouldn't fit theirs.
I’ve seen ‘culture fit’ mentioned in ever increasing amounts across job adverts, websites, and the ever-nauseous fist pumping of the start-up VC hive mind. The flavour of the month seems to be ‘culture fit’.
So why am I so negative about this new fad you see in recruitment?
Because it’s shit.
Recruiting primarily for culture gets you a flat and lifeless team. Take for example small companies. The founder is usually still trying to run everything and will be very much involved in the day to day hiring and firing. Recruiting for culture is often a photocopy of how the founder sees themselves, or a lazy way they want to market their company to potential employees. “We have an amazing culture” or “everyone takes a vote on whether they like the new hire” where nobody votes ‘no’ because you’d have to question their judgement (or perhaps their lack of). Cringe.
Here is a succint reason why using ‘culture fit’ as your defining recruitment process gets you terrible results:
It systematically dismantles and removes the thing that makes teams work best; individuality.
Your team becomes beige and uninteresting because you push out diversity.
Creativity and ability is discouraged and people with ability to push will feel suffocated.
These are a few of the reasons why you may want to reconsider and view your recruitment as a skills and strengths exercise rather than a popularity contest.
“But what about making sure your team is harmonious and works well together?”
Sure, of course you want a well functioning team, but you don’t achieve that by trying to recruit new friends or people you reckon you can drink with. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve had conversations with founders or hiring managers that don’t grasp the basics of group dynamics and how they work.
When you recruit someone just because they fit in, or because they look like you or sound like you, you end up with dull and uninspired work.
The people that went far in history were the ones who wanted to change things and shake up the status quo, not the ones who said “I don’t want to make a fuss”.
You should try to harness lightning, not grab a bucket for the rain.
It’s been a long time since I worked in recruitment and have long since moved into marketing and creative, a wholly more interesting and fun industry where I get to imagine campaigns, write, and share fantastic ideas.
There have been campaigns I’ve worked on that have introduced entire new products to a company, live events that have wowed hundreds and gathering heaps of press, and community events that have turned my groups into digital darlings within gaming. I just wish we’d stop trying to beat creativity out of our industry with low-effort managerial mumbo-jumbo.
Culture fit does not work.
It is anaethema to creativity, art, self-identity, diversity, and expression.
It just fucks things up.
I relent.
After saying all this we can all agree that culture is an important thing to value when used in the right way. Culture should be used as a measure of someone’s work-style and whether they would mesh well with the people you already have, not that they’re a replica of what you already have. Difference should be celebrated after all, rather than shunned.
If you want to do your business a favour, or if you’re a hiring manager or someone involved with bringing in new talent, ask yourself a few things.
1). Are you recruiting to fit a mould?
or
2). Are you looking for people to add to your strengths?
Recruiting for diversity is supposed to avoid your office feeling ‘samey’, or the formation of damaging cliques that alienate others.
Let’s all celebrate diversity for what it is, the celebration of difference.
Culture fit is dead. Long live variety!
NB: I wrote this about a VC funded company that eventually killed itself. This is just a repost to bring everything into one place.