In part 1 of this series, I posed a number of questions that HR and hiring managers should consider as they contemplate how to increase the diversity of their applicant pool. Several questions in that post referenced “fit”.
- Do we often talk about “fit”? (E.g. “He/she would/would not be a good ‘fit’.”)
- What does it mean to “fit” in our organization? What are the specific “fit” characteristics and behaviors of “fit”?
- Are we rejecting a large proportion of potential talent base on our “fit” criteria?
I would add another question for this post: is “fit” code for too different, not enough like me or the people I am comfortable with? Last week I conducted a cultural competence training session for a client. During an unconscious bias exercise that requires participants to select their top candidate from a choice of 3, the issue of “fit” was raised. The description offered for one candidate was that during the interview he appeared to be an extrovert and most of the team was introverted. Several of those in the class rejected this candidate based on his extroverted personality because he would not “fit” with the rest of the group. However several others countered that they would select this person because it would be good for the team to have a different personality type.
The Inclusion Solution Point of View post on June 4 entitled Diverse Like Me pointed to two studies that show recruiters increasingly look for candidates who would be a good “cultural fit” for the organization.
One study conducted by Lauren Rivera, an assistant professor of management and organizations at Northwestern University, found that while companies gave considerable weight to basic qualifications they also considered which university the candidate graduated from as well as finding candidates who were a good “cultural fit”. Rivera spent two years interviewing 120 people who were hiring entry-level candidates for several top law, investment and consulting firms. What did “fit” mean for these recruiters? Sharing a common interest in certain sports or extracurricular activities, or just being the type of person you’d be content to go on a business trip with, were a few of the important considerations.
In another study, the employment site Glassdoor collected 285,000 questions asked by hiring managers, and the following four rank among the 50 most common.
- What’s your favorite movie?
- What’s your favorite website?
- What’s the last book you read for fun?
- What makes you uncomfortable?
“Fit” is so important to some companies that they go to extra lengths to make sure new hires will blend well with the culture. For example, Zappos offers new employees who are struggling to fit $4,000 to quit after a week’s work, rather than expend resources to train someone who is not getting on well with the team. The restaurant chain Pret A Manger has potential employees work for one day and then they are voted in or out by existing employees. If voted out, they are paid and asked to leave.
From a diversity perspective, these techniques could be problematic. What if the new or prospective employee does not fit because he/she comes from a different ethnic background, has a visible disability, is older/younger than the existing team? Again, I ask the question, when we say if someone is a “good fit” or not, what do we really mean and are we eliminating good talent due to a preoccupation with a narrow definition?
