Skills- vs. Culture-Based Hiring: Which is Best?

Recruitment can be a time consuming and costly process, which incentivizes business owners to make data-driven hiring decisions that can be defended.  Looking for a licensed dental hygienist?  A professional licensure check is just one click away.  That’s the easy part to vet.   More challenging is making determinations about more subjective factors.  To that end, though both skill-based and culture-based factors are important to investigate during the candidacy process, hiring managers tend to prioritize skills over other relevant factors.

It’s easy to understand why.  Skill-based hiring had been the primary model for making hiring decisions for years. In essence, skill-based hiring focuses predominantly on whether a candidate has the necessary hard skills to perform in the role; to execute upon the essential job responsibilities and duties.

Sometimes, a candidate may be considered the most viable due to highly-developed soft skills; such as time-management, adaptability, communication, and problem-solving. These soft skills can bridge the gap between skill-based hiring and culture-based hiring.

What is culture-based hiring?  In recent years,

an additional perspective has emerged, with some hiring managers shifting to an emphasis on hiring for a “culture add”. In contrast to skill-based hiring, hiring for culture-add entails hiring someone who will embody the values, ideals, and characteristics aligned with the company’s ideal culture.  For example, if a company stresses the importance of cross-functional collaboration, a candidate who thrives working independently may struggle in such an environment – regardless of the technical skills they possess.  Said differently, this kind of dissonance between employee habits and preferences, and the overarching company culture, can quickly lead to workplace conflict.

The best-case scenario for successful placement is to strike a balance between the two approaches by following a hybrid model:  hiring those that have both the skills necessary to do the job and who align with the company’s culture.  To that end, consider the questions posed during the interview process, and if there is an adequate balance of questions that address both.  Please contact us for examples of behavioral questions, situational questions, and other types of inquiries that will help determine if a candidate’s preferences and habits are aligned with company values and culture.