Hiring solely for technical expertise is no longer enough to build a thriving, sustainable organization. The most successful teams are those that blend strong skills with a deep cultural foundation.
This article explores why balancing technical ability with cultural alignment is critical for building impactful teams. I will cover common pitfalls of hiring solely for skill or culture and offer practical tips to help you identify top talent who contributes on both fronts.
Skill without Culture is Fragile
Technical skills are specific, tangible skills required for your team to keep your product or service promise to customers. Some examples could be designing engine parts in SolidWorks, repairing hydraulic systems, or conducting a root cause analysis. Specific technical skills are a necessity for any job that has a measurable outcome.
However, teams that hire exclusively based on technical skill may be high performing for a time, but they are fragile because they often lack the social trust needed to sustain long-term success.
Workplaces are complex social systems. Even when we tame our emotions, personalities, and values in professional settings, these parts of ourselves continue to exist and impact how we show up. Organizations that only hire for technical skills miss the importance of aligning on all the other layers that make a person whole, and ultimately effective.
Culture without Skill is Dysfunctional
Workplace culture is the underlying set of values that shape how an organization functions, how it hires and promotes, and who it does business with. Workplace culture is the lens through which we view everything else and the set of rhythms, traditions, norms, and practices that define a particular community.
However, hiring exclusively based on culture fit is as incomplete as hiring exclusively for skill.
Teams that hire exclusively for culture often operate with the assumption that the skills can be taught as long as the right personality and aptitude are present. This may be true to a degree, but some skills take years to develop, and if you are not in a position to pay someone to learn for an extended period of time, you will find yourself with a team member you like, but who does not produce the needed results to uphold your promise to your customers.
How to Screen Candidates for Technical Skills
The goal of screening for technical ability is to determine whether this person can apply a specific set of tools and processes to your business effectively.
Use open-ended questions that screen for the ability to apply the necessary tool or process to various contexts, generally, and your context specifically. Unless your candidate has worked in your company before, there is inevitably going to be a learning curve to adapt to your unique way of doing things. Your candidate should demonstrate the ability to apply what they have done in the past at your company.
Try asking questions like:
- Describe a time when you integrated a new tool into your workflow. What was the tool, how did you integrate it, and how might you integrate it in this role?
- What’s your process for learning a new programming language?
- Here’s a real-life problem we have faced before [briefly describe problem]. How would you approach reaching a solution?
How to Screen Candidates for Culture Fit?
Workplace culture can be described using terms like formal or informal, hierarchical or flat, process-oriented or flexible, among others. Once you have a clear understanding of your organization’s culture, it’s important to strike a balance during candidate screening between hiring for culture fit and culture add.
Culture add focuses on shared principles, not personal similarities, and embraces healthy tension as a source of growth, not friction. While hiring only for culture fit may lead to a homogenous and dominant culture, focusing on culture add ensures diverse perspectives that foster healthy conflict, dialogue, and innovation.
Similar to screening for technical skill, it is useful to ask open-ended questions that show how someone responds to specific situations.
Try asking questions like:
- In your ideal workplace, how does your manager give you feedback?
- What type of office environment do you thrive in?
- When do you feel the most supported at work?
Build the Team That Powers Your Success
Both skill and culture are vital for building an effective team to achieve company goals. At DISHER Talent Solutions, we build teams that engineer every aspect of society —it’s our passion and our purpose. If you are looking for a team of talent professionals to come alongside you and understand the importance of hiring for both skill and culture, reach out to us.
