Similarity bias | Hiring a 'cultural fit' can exacerbate discrimination, but what's the alternative?

Messages about the importance of company culture are ever-present.

As an HR practitioner, cultivating a healthy and attractive company culture is of paramount importance, and the likelihood is you’ll be recruiting talented people that align closely with your company culture.

Even though it’s good to hire individuals who share the same values as your business, hiring based on how a candidate will slot into the company – with this being a main priority over competence and skillset – can have an adverse consequence of being discriminatory, and can even entrench a non-diverse workforce.

Why? Selecting employees on how well they fit into an existing company culture, disregards, to some extent, their ability to carry out a role, whilst prioritising their personal interests or lifestyle. It makes sense why employers do this. You want your staff to all get along, you want that employee to feel comfortable, and you want that worker to fit in with everyone else – negating the possibility of conflict or having to replace them in the future.