When building a team, “culture fit” seems important. You want to hire an employee who others will work well with, so you don’t lose valuable time, money and energy that could be better spent growing the business. Yet focusing on the wrong aspects of the culture can open you up to a discrimination complaint with the:
- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
- New York State Division of Human Rights
- New York City Commission on Human Rights
Employers often implement employee policies without much training, which leaves managers to interpret rules based on personal knowledge and experience. Even when they have the best intentions, they will often misinterpret the rules because of their own implicit biases. This can cost businesses tens of thousands of dollars in legal claims and lost talent.
Let’s look at three ways to balance culture fit and inclusion when hiring, so you don’t unintentionally discriminate. This is especially important today, as affirmative action and other policies implemented to address discrimination are under intense scrutiny, if not banned.
Hunt for Hidden Biases
Implicit biases are hidden from us. They occur in our subconsciousness, without our direct consent. Consequently, we must train ourselves to look for them.
When hiring for culture fit, considerations include:
- Understanding the Employer’s Culture. If you think your culture is what executives, marketers, or attorneys said it is, there’s a good chance you won’t truly be hiring for a culture fit. Before you begin the hiring process, ask your employees about your culture. They can also help you improve it so you attract the best candidates.
- Focusing on Skills Over Similarities. It’s human nature to gravitate toward candidates who seem like us. We think they will be easier to work with because they went to the same school, have the same hobbies, etc. But people are a lot more complex than that. It might help to have an outside agency conduct initial screenings and interviews in ways that hide names, photographs, and other information that might distract from skills.
- Overcoming Biases in Thought. Experts believe humans have approximately 70,000 thoughts per day. It would be impossible for us to remember all of them, which suggests we are ignoring some of them (possibly for good reason). If you find yourself thinking you know a person’s story based on a name, graduation year, or anything other than necessary skills, you might be more likely to discriminate unlawfully.
Sample Interview Questions
Focus on the skills needed to perform a job effectively, and ask questions that reveal the technical and soft skills you seek:
- We often have projects that ____________________. Have you led projects like that? Tell me about one. What was your biggest accomplishment related to that project? What challenged you most?
- You might be asked to ________________. How would you approach that? If you needed help, how would you get it? If you made a mistake, how would you resolve it? Can you give me an example of a time when you did this, or wish you had?
- What would you most like to learn from this position? What would you like to achieve?
Conclusion
Don’t make this harder than it is. Culture fit and inclusion are not conflicting initiatives.