Stop Hiring for Culture Fit, Start Hiring for Culture Add ??

You want to hire the best people for your business, right? But how do you find them? Do you look for candidates who are just like you and your team? Who fit in perfectly with your company culture? Who do things the way you do them?

Hiring for culture fit is bad for your business. It makes your team boring, dull, and stuck. It kills diversity, innovation, and growth. Cultural add is not just a different wording, it means looking for candidates who bring something new and different to your company. Who spice up your culture with their unique flavors. Who challenge you to think bigger and better.

?What’s Wrong with Culture Fit?

Culture fit is when you hire people who match your company culture. They have the same values, behaviors, interests, and preferences as you and your team. They blend in smoothly and follow the rules.

?Culture fit was popular in the old days, when companies thought that having a strong and unified culture would make their employees happy, productive, and loyal. They thought that by hiring people who were similar, they would create a peaceful and efficient workplace. But culture fit has some serious problems that can hurt your business.

What’s Right with Culture Add?

Culture add is the opposite of culture fit. It is when you hire people who add something new and different to your company culture. They have diverse perspectives, skills, and experiences that can enrich your company. They shake things up and bring fresh ideas and solutions.

Culture add is the way to go in the modern world. It shows that you value diversity, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it’s good for business. Research shows that diverse teams are more creative, innovative, and profitable than homogenous ones .

Culture add also helps you grow and evolve as a company. It makes you open to learning, feedback, and change. It makes you not afraid to try, fail, and improve. It makes you always look for ways to level up.

How to Hire for Culture Add and make it live? ??

Hiring for culture add means changing your mindset and your hiring process.

Here are some tips to help you make the switch:

?? Know your core values and goals. These are the things that you want every employee to share. They are the things that drive your business. For example, you might value honesty, excellence, and customer satisfaction?

??Look for alignment, not fit. Alignment means that the candidate shares your core values and goals, but not your behaviors and preferences. They are on the same page with you, but not on the same line. They can make your culture better, not just the same.

??Ask smart questions. Ask questions that show how the candidate thinks, solves problems, and fits or adds to your culture. Ask them to tell you stories about their past or future situations. For example, you might ask: “Tell me about a time when you worked with someone who had a different opinion or approach than you. How did you handle it?” or “How would you approach a new project that requires you to learn a new skill or technology?”

??Seek diversity in all ways. Diversity is not only about race, gender, or ethnicity. It is also about age, education, background, personality, and more. Look for candidates who can bring different views and experiences to your team. You might use tools to check and improve your diversity and inclusion practices?

??Embrace and celebrate differences. Hiring for culture add is not enough. You also need to make your culture welcoming and supportive of diversity. You need to make everyone feel like they belong and matter. You need to encourage teamwork, communication, feedback, appreciation. You need to celebrate the differences that make your team awesome and valuable.

Happy Hiring for CULTURAL ADD!