Fit for the Organization is Not Always Fit for the Job
Very often those involved in hiring will look favorably on the candidates that they see as a good fit for the company. If everyone on the team is a big sports fan, then candidates who express an interest in sports look much better than those who don’t. This has a practical application: if your company rewards employees with sporting event tickets or attends games together for team building, then it stands to reason that candidates not interested in sports would feel like the odd person out.
The reasoning seems sound; you want to bring people into the organization who are likely to find job satisfaction. After all, if a new person doesn’t enjoy the culture of the organization, then you’re back to hiring again. However, there are two dangers to hiring for organizational fit…
Organizational fit does not predict job performance
A meta-analysis of research on person-organization fit (Arthur et al., 2006) found no relationship between fit and job performance. Some people who fit a company well performed their jobs well and others who fit well performed very poorly. What organizational fit did predict is the employees’ feelings about the organization, with positive feelings resulting in lower desires to quit. In other words, hiring for fit results in lower turnover. Sounds great, right? Wrong. Because those poor performers who fit the company well have no desire to leave. Turnover due to fit means losing top performers.
When everyone is the same, you risk group think
In the organizational psychology literature, person-organization fit is measured as an alignment between the values of the company and the applicant or employee. However, in practice, many people hire for fit using a much broader definition that includes interests, hobbies, and even demographic features like alma mater and religion. That broader scope results in a narrow pool of employees who often share perspectives and thought processes. When anyone with an alternative perspective shares an opposing opinion, they can easily be downplayed or dismissed by the dominant group. One of the benefits of having a diverse group of employees is that it allows for ideas to be judged by their quality, not by their source. Fit for anything beyond organizational values puts diversity of thought at risk. Lack of diversity in thought narrows the products and solutions that your company can provide.
Getting the right organizational fit … without asking for it
Let organizational fit be determined by the applicant. The company’s job is to help them understand the organization’s values through the job advertisement and company website, not during the interview. Publicly sharing your values will attract a wide swath of candidates because people come to share the same values through many different life paths. Next, structure your interview questions and any other selection tools around assessing only those knowledge, skills, and abilities that are related to the job, as they are the best predictors of job performance. Finally, provide rewards that align with the company’s values, not unique interests. Tickets to a local baseball game may be a great way to improve social relationships, but a company lunch or dinner can achieve the same outcome without making anyone feel like an outsider.
Arthur, W., Jr., Bell, S. T., Villado, A. J., & Doverspike, D. (2006). The use of person-organization fit in employment decision making: An assessment of its criterion-related validity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(4), 786–801. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.4.786
