You’re Thinking about Culture and Hiring All Wrong

How important is a culture fit in hiring? As it turns out, it isn’t!
In almost a decade as an accounting/finance recruiter I’ve gradually come to realize something is far more important than finding the right cultural fit for your organization. I’d like to make the case for hiring for a “culture add” rather than a “culture fit.” 

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What is Corporate Culture?
“Company culture” is a ubiquitous and broad term. Ask 100 corporate executives and you’ll likely get 100 different definitions. Throw those into ChatGPT and ask it to summarize them and you’ll probably get a definition similar to the one that resonates best with me: “A set of behaviors that are valued and that should be reinforced.”

History is full of companies with famous corporate cultures, like:

• Amazon’s insistence that, even 30 years later, everyone should treat each day as if it were day one of their garage-based startup.
• Apple’s famous stress of innovation, design, and customer experience over all else.
• REI giving life to their purpose of celebrating the outdoors and social responsibility by adopting #OptOutside every Black Friday.
• Outdoor clothing company Patagonia’s owner, Yvon Chouinard, giving away his multi-billion dollar company to a trust to ensure that all its profits would be used to combat climate change and protect undeveloped land in perpetuity.

But culture isn’t just static. Ron Popiel the great infomercial guru never said you can just “set it and forget it” with corporate culture. A company must nurture it by hiring the right people to help perpetuate, reinforce, and grow it.

Culture’s Role in Hiring
Culture plays a massive role in hiring from both the perspective of the candidate and the company. If you ever ask a good recruiter to break down the main motivators for any candidate to find a new job, they’d say there are four: money, location, opportunity and CULTURE.
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Invariably, corporate culture comes up in every conversation I have with someone actively looking to change jobs. Each person’s definition is different, but what does not deviate is they are always looking for something better than what they have.

Companies need to pay great attention to nurturing their culture to attract and retain candidates. Even if you’re not Amazon, Apple, REI, or Patagonia, every company needs a well-defined corporate culture to motivate and engage employees around a shared set of values.

A strong culture can help set direction in times of stress, increase productivity, and lead to better performance.  Most importantly, setting up your culture can help attract the best candidates who are looking for that “better.” Moreover, the culture must be nurtured through the growth and change of the company, society, and its people to retain the best employees.

You may be thinking to yourself, “Quinn, this is all good stuff, but I know it all already. Why are we talking about this?” Well, if you ask anyone about the role of culture in hiring, invariably they’re going to say to focus on “culture fit.” I’ve seen too many companies pass over excellent candidates for jobs and too many candidates decline interest in roles at company because they’re thinking simply about “culture fit.” I believe people are thinking about culture in hiring wrong, and I think it’s time to change!

“Culture Fit” is Limiting
Let’s talk about that phrase for a minute. Taken literally, culture fit means fitting someone into a pre-defined structure of valued and repeatable behaviors. This can be very difficult considering we’re talking about people – complex, emotional, constantly changing humans.

For years candidates have been thinking about how they fit into a company’s pre-existing cultural structure. From the outset of an employee/employer relationship this can be very limiting to a person’s overall contribution.

Companies have also been focusing on culture fit. Once a group finds a specific type of person who works well in their confines (e.g. someone with an accounting degree from a large state university, 3+ years in Big-4 public accounting followed by a Corporate Accounting role in a Fortune 100 company), it can make sense to hire that same type of person over and over again. In the long run this leads to hiring people who are extremely similar to each other. Evaluating potential employees for how they will fit into the existing structures of culture completely misses the idea that culture can be improved to attract and retain the best people – that it can grow and evolve while retaining the core set of behaviors that the company wants to reinforce.

A new way of thinking about culture in hiring is needed!

Shifting to “Culture Add”
Companies evolve and grow just like people do. A new way to think about the topic is a small but potentially monumental shift. “Culture add” is a way of thinking that involves both understanding how people fit into the existing set of reinforced behaviors and how they can help it evolve and grow.
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A big mistake companies make is to assume the behaviors they value are only exhibited in candidates who have a specific set of lived experiences like education and prior work experience. We see this all the time as recruiters and here is an example that might help explain how readjusting from culture fit to culture add could work: 

An early-stage startup company with  30 employees is growing quickly and values hiring people who exhibit ownership behaviors like willingness to work cross-functionally, an ‘always-on’ mentality to work nights and weekends to further the company’s goals of growing revenue and market share, and the ability to work in a very fast pace by taking on multiple complex projects at once. They usually hire candidates who have a history of working in other similar startups, eschewing candidates who have not lived that experience previously because they believe they don’t fit into their culture.

But do candidates who live those behaviors exist who haven’t gotten a chance to work in a company like this? Of course, they likely just exhibit those behaviors in other areas in their life, have not gotten the chance to add their own value in a startup company, but likely would thrive there.
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Additionally, they’d likely bring novel viewpoints and perspectives about the company and the world that could add value or help evolve and grow the culture because they’re different. Candidates who have different lived experiences might also serve to help foster new ideas amongst the team because they think a bit differently or come from a different background. They may display new behaviors that also fit with the preexisting culture, making it better over time.

The previous example may make it seem like the onus for shifting from fit to add is entirely on the hiring company. It is not. Below are ways both candidates and companies can help make this shift.

How to Apply “Culture Add” in Hiring
Candidates share equal burden for pushing companies into a culture add mentality. If we operate under the assumption that most people (hiring managers included) are inclusive but lack the knowledge or motivation to change, there are ways candidates can help hiring managers think about culture add, and it all happens in the interview process.

First, try to understand the company’s culture as best you can through reading and research. Next, write down certain behaviors you think would both fit and could add value so you’re ready for the interview. Then, ask questions in the interview to help you understand their culture better and if your “culture add” behaviors are in line with behaviors they value. Some questions a candidate could ask of their interviewer might be:

• When was a time recently that you’ve been satisfied and energized at work?
  (Listen for an indication that the work environment is right for them and why.)
• What’s the most interesting thing your team knows about you now that they did not when you first joined?
  (Listen for signs that the person brings something new and is valued for that uniqueness.)
• What made you choose this company over others?
  (Listen for thoughtful, honest answers that tell you what they’re really thinking, not just towing the line.)
• What’s the biggest misconception your coworkers have about you and why do they think that?
  (Listen for self-reflection and transparency – this is an indication they are open with the people around them.)

Of course, company owners and leaders own the creation and maintenance of their corporate culture, so they share the responsibility for making this shift in hiring. Like for candidates, it begins with identifying key behaviors that are valued but then removing any assumptions about whether or nota candidate exhibits those behaviors while reviewing their resume. In other words, read the resume for demonstration of skill and use the interview to ask questions about what behaviors they exhibit.

The same questions as above can be reworded and used to learn about any candidates’ behaviors (or you can craft your own based on your internal research). Taking this approach controls for the tendency to hire people who have the same backgrounds while assuming they exhibit the same behaviors. Using the example from above, here are a couple culture add questions that an interviewer could ask:

• Is there a time when you went above and beyond what was asked or expected of you? Why did you act in this way?
  (Listen for an example of the person working cross-functionally and taking ownership over something.)
• Have you ever found yourself motivated to think about and give time and energy to a project or cause outside of when you were expected to?
  (Listen for an example of the ‘always-on’ mentality. What was it that gave them that energy and motivation and does it fit in with what you’re offering?)
• When is the last time you had multiple projects you were managing simultaneously in your life? What were they, how did you handle them and how did that make you feel?
  (Listen for how this person works and feels while working in a fast-paced, multi-project environment.)

Hopefully you see now how culture add is a subtle yet important way of shifting how candidates and companies think about hiring. By thinking about the process a little differently people are accepting that fitting people into a company’s culture is still important, while also acknowledging that companies, people, and culture grow, shift, and change over time. The best way to ensure they all grow together is by attracting and retaining the best employees using the culture add approach.

DISCLAIMER: I am a recruiter, not an expert on corporate culture. Nothing in this article should be construed as advice on how to build or change your corporate culture. No corporate culture experts were harmed in the writing of this article.

Whether your organization is looking to hire in accounting/finance or you are an accounting or finance professional looking for your next role, we can help! Let our accounting recruiters find the right candidate for your open role or match you with your dream role to advance your career. We work solely in the areas of accounting and finance to give you an advantage in the hiring market. Contact us now to find out more!

About the Author
Quinn Finnigan – Recruiting Services Leader, The ASP Team

​Quinn serves a dual role in the CFO Selections group of companies: leading the Contingent Recruiting Practice with The ASP Team and assisting with Retained Executive Search services for CFO Selections. His 9-year career in recruiting combined with 10 years of experience in finance, audit, and accounting for several nationally recognized companies have given him a unique insight into the needs and requirements expected of finance professionals. He is equally skilled in working with clients and candidates.

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