You’re reviewing candidates for a new role in the company…
There’s the candidate with the right technical ability and track record, but their attitude doesn’t completely align with your core values (leaving you with the feeling that they may not gel well with the rest of your team)…
Then there’s the candidate with an amazing outlook and energy, you know their approach and presence will uplift the entire team (but they’re missing some core competencies)…
And you can’t recruit them both…
So who do you choose?
There’s plenty of debate around whether to recruit for attitude or whether you should recruit for skills and proven background experience.
You likely know why you should recruit for either skills or attitude, however I’d like to introduce you to the potential negatives to help balance your viewpoint.
The argument against recruiting on attitude Recruiting solely on attitude can bring with it a personal bias and potentially discriminate against people if you are only looking at similar traits of people who may fit into your team. Sometimes, the time it may take to train people and the fact that you are not necessarily bringing experts in to lift the current standards can also be a negative for the organisation.
The argument against recruiting on skills Recruiting solely on skills can mean you have the best technical operator in the world come into your business, but if they don’t work effectively with your team, customers and yourself, they’ll end up requiring significant time to manage and ultimately, will never be a great fit.
My view is that you first want to ensure that the candidate will be able to do the job, and therefore their skills and background experience are critical in helping to determine this. BUT, don’t move forward if attitude and culture do not align.
So how does this impact the hiring process?
Next we’re going to look at how to recruit for both skills and attitude so that you can combine them and make sure you hire the right person!
Firstly, you need to be able to clearly articulate the skills that are critical to the success of the role.
They may be technical skills (i.e. Advanced Excel) or they may be softer skills (like problem solving, creative thinking, etc.).
Once you have your skills requirements:
Now that you’ve got a handle on whether the candidate has the right skills for the role, move into evaluating attitude…
As with hiring for skills, you need to be able clearly articulate attitude and culture fit for your organisation.
Commonly, they will be based around your company values (or ‘how things are done around here’).
Techniques to assess attitude:
Having both the skills for the role and the attitude for your company will ensure that your next hire is good for your business long-term.
You might be thinking that all this sounds a bit complicated, and putting into practice will be hard work.
If you have questions on this topic or any others, feel free to reach me by email or set up a free one-on-one consultation session, or drop me a comment below.
Thanks for sharing!
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