Culture Fit or Culture Add?

They look for people who fit as closely as possible with what already exists within the organization.

But what happens when roles change faster than the requirements we use to hire people?

This is precisely the question at the heart of our interview series, "Leading Through Change – People, Methods, Mindset." In this series, we speak with leaders from different organizations about how leadership evolves when technology, markets, and organizations are changing simultaneously.

For this conversation, we sat down with Nino Remorino, Lead HR Development & Recruiting at MOIA Operations Germany GmbH.

Why him in particular?

Because his role combines two perspectives that many companies still consider separately: recruiting and employee development.

And because he works in an environment that is constantly evolving technologically, organizationally, and strategically.

It is precisely in such environments that we can see how leadership, recruiting, and employee development must evolve when roles change faster than job profiles.

MOIA is rapidly advancing the development of autonomous vehicle fleets. MOIA Operations Germany GmbH (hereinafter referred to as MOIA Operations) provides the operational workforce in Hamburg and ensures the successful implementation of autonomous mobility services on the road.

This creates entirely new roles – such as Safety Drivers, who accompany autonomous vehicles during the testing phase.

The challenge:

The requirements of this role cannot yet be fully defined. "The Safety Driver profile isn't entirely clear yet because we simply cannot reliably predict what the role will look like in five years."

This is where a fundamental shift in recruiting begins.

When roles evolve dynamically, the traditional approach becomes increasingly ineffective: trying to find the perfect candidate for a clearly defined position.

Instead, a different question takes center stage:

Does this person have the potential to grow and develop alongside the role?

Or, as Nino puts it: "We are increasingly looking for candidates who demonstrate the ability to learn, rather than focusing on whether they are the perfect fit here and now."

One important step at MOIA Operations has therefore been to connect recruiting and employee development more closely.

When these two functions are considered separately, a challenge quickly emerges:

Recruiting looks for the right candidate for today. Employee development focuses on preparing people for tomorrow.

When these perspectives come together, the way candidates are evaluated naturally changes.

The central question is no longer simply: Is this person a good fit today?

It also becomes: What development potential does this person bring?

An important tool in this approach at MOIA Operations is the use of competency models developed collaboratively with the teams.

These models describe not only competencies but also specific behavioral indicators – observable examples of how particular skills and abilities are demonstrated in everyday working situations.

The benefits become visible across several areas:

• Recruiting

• Onboarding

• Employee development

• Collaboration with hiring managers

Because suddenly, it becomes much clearer what really matters.

Another insight from our conversation is that recruiting is not an individual decision.

At MOIA Operations, several recruiters work simultaneously on different positions. At the same time, hiring managers are actively involved in the interview process.

To make decisions more comparable, the team uses structured interview guides based on its internally developed competency models.

This helps for two reasons.

First, it creates a consistent basis for evaluating candidates – not only in direct comparison with one another, but also in terms of how well they match the role and the organization.

Second, this structure provides a clearer foundation for decisions throughout the selection process.

As a result, hiring decisions are based on a significantly more reliable foundation, because observations can be systematically recorded and jointly reflected upon.

Structured interview guides also help maintain a clear focus during the selection process.

After all, recruiting often creates the desire to find the perfect candidate – someone who ideally brings everything to the table.

As Nino explains during our conversation: "If everything is important, nothing is important."

Structured criteria therefore help establish priorities and make hiring decisions more transparent and understandable. "Leading Through Change Doesn't Mean Knowing Everything Better" One insight from our conversation with Nino illustrates particularly well how the understanding of leadership is currently evolving.

Nino originally comes from an employee development background and later took on additional responsibility for recruiting.

He describes his approach to leadership very openly: "I'm not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to technical expertise – the people with the greatest expertise are in my team."

For him, leadership is therefore primarily about creating an environment in which others can contribute their expertise, rather than always having to provide the best technical answers himself.

This perspective is becoming increasingly important, particularly in dynamic organizations.

When circumstances are constantly changing, leadership can no longer rely solely on professional authority.

Instead, it is built on:

• Providing direction

• Creating context

• Ensuring transparency

• Asking the right questions

The more dynamic organizations become, the harder it is to answer a traditional recruiting question:

What kind of people are we actually looking for?

People who fit as closely as possible with what already exists?

Or people who bring new perspectives, experiences, and ways of thinking into the organization?

Particularly in environments where roles and requirements are constantly evolving, the idea of the perfect fit becomes increasingly difficult to define.

After all, what seems like an ideal match today may look very different tomorrow.

Nino captures this tension with a simple but powerful question: "Is Culture Fit enough – or should we also be looking for Culture Add?"

It is a question that extends far beyond MOIA Operations.

And one that becomes increasingly relevant for organizations as their environments become more dynamic.

Organizations generally need a shared cultural foundation – common values, attitudes, and ways of working that provide direction and enable effective collaboration.

Without such a foundation, working together can quickly become difficult.

At the same time, roles, markets, and technologies are changing faster than ever before.

As a result, organizations increasingly face situations in which new skills, perspectives, or experiences may create greater value than achieving the closest possible cultural match.

Many recruiting decisions take place precisely within this tension.

The challenge is therefore less about choosing one approach over the other and more about finding the right balance:

Between a shared cultural foundation that enables collaboration – and openness to people who bring new perspectives, capabilities, and ways of thinking into an organization.

Especially in dynamic environments, this combination can make all the difference.