Whether you are the employer interviewing a candidate or a candidate interviewing an employer, understanding the values fit is key to finding the best fit. Laszlo Bock, Former Google Head of People Operations, in the attached video Landing a job 101: What you need to know discusses the best questions to ask to define culture/values for an organization. He suggests asking questions of your potential employer around what people get recognized for and promoted for within the organization. This gives you a better understanding of actual values instead of just reading the values on a company website.
Values fit and culture fit are difficult to ascertain. There has been a lot of push back on culture fit as it creates a cookie cutter hiring process as opposed to a culture add approach which promotes diversity and inclusion. Unconscious bias is a difficult subject to impact because all people have unconscious bias.
We wrote a blog last year regarding avoiding cookie cutter hiring practices. Facebook is a good example of a company that has moved away from culture fit hiring towards culture add hiring.
“At Facebook, we’ve explicitly asked interviewers not to use the term ‘culture fit’ when giving feedback on a candidate because that phrase can easily allow bias to influence the outcome of an interview. As part of a larger effort to help people identify and correct for the biases that we all inherently have, interviewers at Facebook go through managing bias training and are encouraged to use the skills they’ve learned when interviewing candidates.”
– Facebook Spokesperson
Australia-based Atlassian, a leading provider of team collaboration and productivity software, is another company reframing their approach away from culture fit to reduce unconscious bias – changing their focus to “values fit.”
“Focusing on “values fit” ensures we hire people who share our sense of purpose and guiding principles, while actively looking for those with diverse viewpoints, backgrounds, and skill sets. We’re trying to build a healthy and balanced culture, not a cult.”
– Aubrey Blanche, Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion
So what does all this mean? Diverse teams are smarter and more successful and are a good business decision. As per this quote from the Harvard Business Review published an article on the topic
“In a nutshell, enriching your employee pool with representatives of different genders, races, and nationalities is key for boosting your company’s joint intellectual potential. Creating a more diverse workplace will help to keep your team members’ biases in check and make them question their assumptions. At the same time, we need to make sure the organization has inclusive practices so that everyone feels they can be heard. All of this can make your teams smarter and, ultimately, make your organization more successful, whatever your goals.”