When companies make the decision to terminate an employee, the explanation for their action often involves the concept of corporate “fit.” In a recent study, companies indicated that 85 per cent of terminations were based on behavioural incompatibility or lack of fit. Most companies, however, are hard-pressed to define or give substance to the concept of “fit” and seldom g ive it attention during the recruitment and selection process where the focus tends to be on technical competency only.
Fit defined
 “Fit” relates to the similarities or match between the individual job candidate and the workplace. Known more formally as personenvironment fit, the theory has been around since the early 1900s. Since then, a large body of research has amassed supporting its validity and usefulness as an employee selection tool. It has proven to have wide-ranging impact on a variety of factors, including individual job satisfaction, productivity, and employee turnover rates. Recent evidence suggests it deserves more attention than it is currently given during recruitment activity.
Fit theory is multi-faceted and can be broken down into four primary components:
• Person-job fit (PJ) is the area most widely addressed by hiring authorities. At its most basic level, it relates to the technical competency of the job candidate in relation to the technical job demands. Of equal importance, however, are the underlying human job factors — the personality characteristics and personal work traits that are so critical to on-the-job success. Examples of human job factors include attention to detail, abstract reasoning skills, the ability to persuade or influence, a sense of urgency, creativity, process-focus,
being a team player, or the ability to work in isolation.
• Person-group fit (PG) and person-supervisor fit (PS) are self-explanatory and relate to the interpersonal alignment between and among the parties.
• Person-organization fit (PO) is the area least often considered, and yet research demonstrates that this type of fit is critical to both organizational success and individual health and well-being. PO fit relates to the similarities or match between the individual’s values, beliefs, interests and personal work traits, as well as the values, beliefs, and culture of the workplace. The key concept that underpins PO fit is values-alignment. The degree of values-alignment directly impacts the employee’s sense of job satisfaction, level of organizational commitment, and sense of belonging.
Maximizing fit
Person-organization fit has proven to be the most important type of fit to consider during the hiring process. Recent studies have demonstrated that when companies place greater emphasis on PO fit, good things happen. Productivity and profits increase, employees are happier, recruitment and de-hiring costs decline, and absences and turnover rates decrease substantially. It’s clear that individuals are attracted and remain loyal to organizations that seem to respect and mirror their own beliefs and values. This engenders a strong sense of belonging and personal well-being that is reflected in their work and tends to remain constant over time. Keep in mind that job demands and requirements shift constantly, while organizational culture and values are less dynamic. When hiring occurs on the basis of PO fit, job satisfaction endures.
The downside
Despite the evidence, organizations that hire predominantly for PO fit remain the minority. This is likely because hiring for PO fit is a more time-consuming process. As well, very little PO selection technology has been developed to date. Still, organizations that have adopted a PO-fit hiring strategy have realized a significant return on their investment.
The process
To benefit from a PO-fit hiring strategy, the first and most important step is to understand fully your organization’s existing values — not the ones hanging on the wall that you aspire to, but the ones in practice. These are the values that are evident in the workplace’s day-to-day operations, behaviours, and conduct. Hiring for values other than those in practice will ultimately create PO values misalignment and lead to failure.
Once the organizational values are clearly known, values-based behavioural or situational interview questions designed to measure PO fit can be customized for your own organization. There are also many commercially available assessments that will assist in identifying job candidates’ work values and work personality, and measure them against a pre-developed organizational value profile. Work simulations and work trials designed to identify work values, rather than just technical competency, are also valuable tools to augment the selection process.
The time has come to take a more measured approach to personnel selection and focus our attention on the real issue. The evidence supports what we’ve known intuitively and what the most successful companies have put into practice: when it comes to successful hiring, it’s all about the fit.
Gail Rieschi MEd, is president and CEO of vpi Inc. Employment Strategies. Working Solutions, a firm that specializes in employment and HR-management services.
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