Unconscious Bias & Interview Fails | @SophieTheen on The #SocialRecruiting Show

Sophie Theen may be the Head of HR & Talent at 11FS, but it all started when she went to school for automotive engineering.

After working in engineering for eight months, she realised she wasn’t going to be able to change the world like that. A few recruitment projects and years later, Sophie is focusing her talents on how we can make better leaders.

“I learned what teamwork really means, because you don’t know everything and you can’t do everything on your own. Someone is going to be better than you.”

But when it comes to culture fit, Sophie had some advice for us about how we can be better and do better.

Defining culture fit beyond bias.

We asked Sophie what she does to not be biased when giving an interview. She prefaced by reminding us that there’s not much you can do when it comes to reviewing the CV. All you can do is go off of the experience and skills listed. References and CVs are technical tests, but how do you ensure that a candidate is a human fit?

Sophie explained that everyone in the company has a single responsibility to make sure they are not making a bad hiring choice. But she added that ultimately,

“Cultural fit is everything for us.”

So, what exactly is culture fit?

Culture fit is a collaboration of a group of people, all with different mindsets. But most importantly, culture fit isn’t a stationary target – it’s something that grows and shifts with time.

“As you’re going through a startup and then scale up to corporate, you are going through a growth fix. You then start bringing in different kinds of people because you’ve changed, and the culture evolves – and it’s made up of the people you bring in. As you continue to grow, you bring in people for different purposes. The culture evolves based on the people you bring in.”

Everyone is different. Everyone has a different perception.

If you ask multiple people in the same work environment what the culture is, they will all have a different answer. And guess what? No one is right or wrong. This is because everyone has their own feelings and experiences – there is no single value that can define culture fit.

If that wasn’t enough, below you’ll hear Sophie shares more: