Editorial
“How many ping pong balls can you fit in a Boeing 747?” I once worked with a CEO who used brain teasers like this in interviews. He claimed it helped him screen out candidates who couldn’t work under pressure and didn’t demonstrate problem-solving capabilities, two critical qualities for the culture he was trying to build. Another CEO would greet candidates in the reception area of his company and walk as fast as he could to the interview room, at the far end of the hallway, because “if they can’t keep up with me in the interview, how will they demonstrate a sense of urgency on the job?”
Building the right team is one of the most critical ingredients in the recipe for business success. The cost of a poor hire can be staggering — not only in terms of dollars spent on recruiting and onboarding costs, but also in lost productivity, reduced team morale, and potential damage to the company’s reputation. Yet, despite the high stakes, many leaders struggle to get hiring right in part because they are not adequately trained in effective recruiting practices.
Outdated methods or subjective instincts become the default approach to build winning teams rather than rigorous, data-driven approaches. Leaders resort to tricks, “gotcha” moments and other poor practices that diminish hiring outcomes and erode trust in the employer brand. One of the most problematic recruiting practices is the emphasis on hiring for “culture fit.”
The Perils of Hiring for Culture Fit
The concept of culture fit has long been a cornerstone of organizations’ hiring strategies. On the surface, it seems logical: find candidates who seamlessly integrate into the existing company culture. However, this approach is fraught with problems, starting with the fact that most organizations — let alone their interview panels — struggle to accurately describe what their culture truly is.
The Nebulous Nature of Corporate Culture
Too many leaders equate culture with surface-level perks such as happy hours or ping-pong tables. These elements may contribute to an enjoyable work environment, but they don’t define a company’s culture, which is rooted in shared values, behaviors and lore. Ask five different people on an interview panel to describe their company’s culture, and you’re likely to hear five completely different responses. Moreover, microcultures play a key role, especially in organizations with a distributed workforce; the London office may have a different culture from the Singapore office. This inconsistency in a common understanding of company culture leads to confusion and poor hiring decisions, as candidates are evaluated against a blurry target.
Related Podcast: Melissa Daimler on How to Intentionally Design Corporate Culture
The Assumption of Static Culture
Another critical flaw in the culture fit model is the underlying assumption that company culture is static. In reality, culture is dynamic, especially in organizations experiencing rapid growth or undergoing significant transformations. A company of 100 employees will inevitably have a different culture when it scales to 500. The best organizations are those that continuously evolve their culture to meet the changing needs of their customer base and workforce. Research shows that companies with adaptable, resilient cultures are likely to have higher revenues and 40% less likely to go bankrupt. Consequently, by focusing on hiring people who fit into the existing culture, companies risk creating echo chambers that stifle innovation and growth — the very elements needed for long-term success.
Bias in Hiring
Perhaps the most dangerous consequence of hiring for culture fit is the introduction of unconscious bias into the selection process. When hiring managers prioritize candidates who "fit,” they can subconsciously favor people who share their background, interests and worldview. They may prefer a candidate who attended the same university or plays the same sport. This form of bias goes unnoticed because it’s disguised as an assessment of culture fit.
When recruiting processes are not explicitly designed to mitigate bias, strong candidates are overlooked, and organizations limit their own ability to maintain a competitive edge. Research shows that diverse teams outperform homogenous ones, yet the focus on culture fit restricts access to top talent by propagating homogeneity.
Related Article: 5 Tips to Improve the Culture of Your Organization
Shifting to a 'Culture Add' Mindset
An alternative to culture fit is the idea of hiring for culture add. This approach is about identifying what candidate qualities and experiences will enhance the company culture, rather than simply blending in with the status quo. Here’s how organizations can make this shift:
Define Culture Add Competencies
The first step in hiring for culture add is to define what traits would be additive to the company’s or team’s existing culture. This requires leaders to take a hard look at what’s working today and where they want to steer the ship. To do this effectively, design candidate selection scorecards that assess a candidate’s culture add competencies. If the key responsibilities and deliverables of the role are the “what,” the cultural competencies are the “how.”
For instance, if an organization aims to become more innovative, it should seek candidates who have demonstrated an ability to lead innovation initiatives. This can be assessed through targeted questions like, “What innovation initiatives have you spearheaded and how did you define success?” or “How do you foster psychological safety such that all team members feel safe sharing new ideas?” These questions go beyond the subjective assessment of culture fit and directly evaluate candidates’ tangible skills (in this case, leading innovation) that can strengthen the team and culture they will be a part of.
Structured Interviews
A best practice for assessing candidates fairly and consistently is to use structured interviews whereby each candidate is interviewed by the same interviewers at every stage of the selection process, and each interviewer asks each candidate the same set of questions. While this may seem obvious, an alarming number of companies fail to get these basics right. One such use of structured interviews is exemplified by Amazon’s “bar raiser” program. At Amazon, bar raisers are experienced interviewers who assess candidates against the company’s 16 leadership principles. They undergo extensive training to ensure that only the most qualified candidates — those who can raise the bar for the company — are hired.
Related Article: Corporate Culture Matters. Just Ask Your Board of Directors
The Culture Interview
A novel step leaders can introduce in the hiring process is the culture interview. This is where the candidate interviews the hiring manager and asks questions about the employer’s current culture and its future trajectory. This step gives candidates more agency in the process and allows them to assess whether they can contribute meaningfully to the organization’s culture. By putting decision-making power in the candidate’s hands, leaders can also improve offer acceptance rates — a metric many organizations use to assess the effectiveness of their recruiting processes.
Conference
Oct
20
Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo Orlando 2025
Register
Conference
Oct
27
Gartner HR Symposium/Xpo Orlando 2025
Register
Combating Bias in Candidate Debriefs
Candidate debrief meetings are breeding grounds for bias. These discussions often veer into the subjective realm, with interviewers providing feedback like, “I just didn’t get the right feeling from him,” or “He seemed like someone I’d grab a beer with!” To combat this, it’s crucial to steer discussions back to objective criteria based on the predefined competencies and success scorecard for the role. Importantly, senior members of the interview panel must speak last during these de-briefs to avoid unduly influencing the group’s decision-making process.
The Future of Hiring Is Inclusive
When recruiting processes are not designed to be intentionally inclusive, they become accidentally exclusive. As we navigate the complexities of the modern workplace, it’s clear that the most successful organizations will be those that embrace diversity of thought and experience. The culture add mindset is not just a hiring strategy; it’s a commitment to building an organization that is equipped to thrive in an increasingly competitive and ever-changing global marketplace.
Learn how you can join our contributor community.
