Mirror mirror: How hiring a ‘good fit’ reduces diversity
Let’s continue our exploration of organisation enablers to ageism built into company recruitment processes through a focus on the reliance on ‘organisation fit’ as a major determinant of ‘talent’ meaning in hiring decisions.
How often during recruitment processes have the phrases ‘I’ll know the right candidate when I meet him/her’ or ‘We didn’t click, so I don’t think the candidate is a fit for our culture’ been used to justify hiring intentions?
Quite often is the answer in our personal experience and certainly reinforced in our recent PhD research.
The personal interpretation of what ‘organisation fit’ may mean for a recruiter and company highlights both issues in its importance to hiring decisions and an increased risk of a poor recruiting outcome. The lack of any objective criteria to ‘organisation fit’ meaning allows organisations to define ‘fit’ in unique and opportunistic ways for their own purposes. The underlying subjectivity to ‘fit’ interpretation increases the risk of the term disguising personal recruiter bias in hiring decision-making. The candidate most capable of delivering results may not be the one hired because of their lack of ‘fit’ in the recruiter’s opinion.
The association of ‘fit’ with organisation culture alignment suggests social factors become more critical than business improvement criteria in determining who to hire. A recruiter’s assessment of a candidate’s conformance to prevailing cultural norms and company precedents suggests the prioritisation of ‘corporate branding’ and behavioural compliance criteria. In social psychology terms, for a new recruit to be legitimised they must above all be socially acceptable by being believed in and a fit with the relevant social context.
Reconciling ‘organisation fit’ with diversity and inclusion practices is challenging. Whilst diversity suggests workforce difference, ‘organisation fit’ emphasises workforce sameness.
To the extent that age considerations inform meanings of ‘organisation fit’, then hiring decisions enable ageism and create a significant barrier to older workers seeking to enter the workforce.
Organisation Fit in Hiring Decisions: Research Evidence
Research shows organisational fit and cultural alignment is more important to employers than matters solely concerning productivity (Rivera, 2012).
Managers favour people with whom they can establish a social connection irrespective of their productivity (Hennekam, Peterson, Tahssain-Gay, & Dumazert, 2019).
A case study exploring the hiring practices of elite US-based professional service firms found that potential job candidate skills were less important than a personal connection between recruiters and a candidate. Hiring decisions were more about the recruiter seeking a personal connection on social grounds than an assessment of technical capability (Rivera, 2012).
Organisations should exercise caution if using organisation fit as a factor in making employment-related decisions as it offers no valid prediction of performance (Arthur, Bell, Villado, & Doverspike, 2006).
Organisation fit is described as more a perception than an actuality, with the belief it exists from an organisational sense becoming its primary determinant, irrespective of whether a person has characteristics to complement the business (Supeli & Creed, 2013).
Research reveals that recruiters see themselves as representative of the firm and its personality and therefore use themselves as a proxy to ascertain ‘organisation fit’ (Rivera, 2012).
Management studies observe a tendency toward homophily among businesses, even when these companies are recruiting from the broad labour market; recognising that homosocial reproduction to varying degrees is a hallmark of most organisations (Brymer, Molloy & Gilbert 2014).
Our PhD confirms that organisation fit is the most critical element in hiring decisions and emphasises a candidate meeting an organisational social requirement rather than fulfilling an economic objective with the purpose of ensuring sustainability of existing organisation actions and behaviours.
How This Organisation Practice May be Harming Your Business
A reliance on ‘organisation fit’ by recruiters in hiring decisions implies that company recruiting processes are highly risk averse with the emphasis on hiring individuals who people feel ‘comfortable’ with.
Being ‘comfortable’ relates to a new hire reminding the recruiter of themselves at some point in time.
This makes the recruitment of older workers problematic when many recruiters are much younger.
Recruiters justify a focus on ‘fit’ on the basis that its use contributes to effective team performance and improved productivity. Recruitment success prioritises cultural similarity over increasing workforce diversity, with any similarity between an interviewer and job candidate acting as a strong indicator of group membership and criteria for inclusion. An alternative view of the impact of ‘organisation fit’ on organisation behaviour is how the organisation status quo is protected and existing cultural norms reinforced. ‘Organisation fit’ becomes a vehicle to screen out people who do not fit the prevailing norm. The opportunity to introduce innovative thinking or new work practices becomes limited as recruiters staff the organisation with people who preserve the existing order and potentially resist change.
The fact that a candidate’s age remains a significant issue for most of today’s recruiters sees ‘organisation fit’ being used as a prime method for excluding older workers and an accepted business method of avoiding potential legal claims of age-based discrimination in hiring decisions. ‘Organisation fit’ then represents a powerful vehicle enabling the continuance of organisation sanctioned ageism within company recruitment processes.
Do you know how much your existing recruitment practices may be penalising your business?
If the above questions have made you reflect on your workplace dynamics, please contact us and let us help you take practical steps to transform your existing workplace into an inclusive age neutral one that develops your competitive and performance capability.
Selected References
Arthur, W., Bell, S. T., Villado, A. J., & Doverspike, D. (2006). The use of person-organisation fit in employment decision making: An assessment of its criterion-related validity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(4), 786-801.
Brymer, R. A., Molloy, J. C., & Gilbert, B. A. (2014). Human capital pipelines: Competitive implications of repeated interorganizational hiring. Journal of Management, 40(2), 483-508.
Glastra, F. J., & Meerman, M. (2012). Developing ethnic talent in the Dutch national tax administration: a case study. European Journal of Training and Development, 36(1), 105-124.
Hennekam, S., Peterson, J., Tahssain-Gay, L., & Dumazert, J.-P. (2019). Recruitment discrimination: how organizations use social power to circumvent laws and regulations. The International Journal of Human Resource Management. doi:10.1080/09585192.2019.1579251
Hessell, T. (2021). ‘Talent and age: How do Human Resource Manager meanings of talent influence their perceptions of older workers?’ PhD Thesis. University of Newcastle, Australia
Rivera, L. N. (2012). Hiring as cultural matching: The case of elite Professional Service Firms. American Sociological Review, 77(6), 999-1022.
Silzer, R., & Church, A. H. (2009). The pearls and perils of identifying potential. Industrial and Organizational Psychology (2), 377 - 412.
Supeli, A., & Creed, P. A. (2013). The incremental validity of perceived goal congruence: The assessment of person-organizational fit. Journal of Career Assessment, 22(1), 28-42.
