Why Personality Trumps Experience While Hiring

During the interview process, one of the most daunting tasks that recruiters face is the question of how good the new hire would be and how well he or she would fit into the business mechanism of your company.

There is absolutely no way to anticipate the future roles of the candidate in the business model or how good they would perform. Although, there is no hard and fast rule stating how to eliminate this looming dilemma, trying to hire a candidate based not just on experience but also on their personality can prove to be a lifesaver in the future years.

Hiring, based on this technique is sure to give you an edge in choosing the right candidate for the job. In a lot of cases, a person’s personality can prove to be a greater indicator of success than their qualifications, experience or technical prowess. This article lists a few reasons which illuminate why personality is at times more important than experience while hiring.

It’s important to focus on a person’s personality over their skills

There is a famous saying that goes around in the circle of recruiters. This saying goes somewhat like, ‘Skills can be taught to a person, but personality cannot be.’ It is always possible to hire a person who is lacking in some kind of skills and fill in their gaps with proper training and education, but it is impossible to imbibe personality into a person.

Whatever the person has intrinsic to his characteristics is bound to stay. You cannot change the habits or the attitude of a person just by asking him to mend his ways. Hence, personality is something that comes from within unlike skills, which can be taught.

It is always recommended to hire a candidate who showcases the desired qualities that a company wants from their employees, rather than hiring a qualified candidate who is a misfit with the culture of the company.

It is beneficial for the company to hire these people and make an investment in training them because those with desirable personality traits will prove to be an asset for the company once the training is finished, rather than those who are not cohesive with the way the company works. The amount of training required by a new employee completely depends on the kind of business that you run, and that will ascertain the amount required to be invested in a candidate, but it is always possible to teach a new candidate the requisite skills for business.

The whole business benefits from positivity

Hiring based on personality rather than experience or skills is important because otherwise, the bad recruit has the potential to prove detrimental to your entire workforce.

A bad recruit might have the requisite skills for the job, but his/her bad attitude has the risk of lowering the morale and efficiency of the entire workforce because of the shenanigans that he/she is capable of pulling. An employee who has a bad attitude has the capability of not just bringing down your entire workforce but also costing you your customers and reputation of the company.

On the contrary, an employee who exhibits a good attitude has the potential of boosting the morale of the entire workforce, therefore becoming a positive point for the company. They have the capability of becoming a factor of motivation for the entire team and help them restructure their job with reinvigorated zeal and dedication. A good attitude makes the working environment more enjoyable and also motivates the other employees to help the new candidate nurture his skills and learn the ropes quickly.

The key to success is culture and collaboration

The definition of teamwork is not limited to a group of people working together on a project; it is much more than that. It refers to the availability of diverse knowledge and expertise within a group and the coming together of all these skills and expertise in order to produce a final result that has the capability of exceeding the expectations of the client. Personality is the key force in being able to bring such teamwork into action. You might have an employee who is educated in a lot of things and has a lot of degrees and skills, but if he cannot communicate the things that need to be done in an effective manner, this arsenal of knowledge goes in vain. Hiring someone with the proper personality means hiring someone who prioritizes the morals, ethics, and values that the company upholds. This helps that person familiarize with the rest of the team and hence be able to communicate in a more seamless manner with everybody present. This allows the company to make use of all the diverse resources of knowledge and skills that it has and create that extraordinary final project in a cohesive and collaborative manner.

Positive personality means a high degree of passion

It is important to choose an employee who is truly interested in your company and has a great amount of passion for the work that it does. This person might be lacking in skills, but his extensive enthusiasm is sure to make him work hard towards achieving those skills over time and also bring positivity, productivity, and passion into your workplace. A truly passionate employee can prove to be a brilliant asset who works their heads off in order to achieve the company’s vision and goals for success. If one has to take into account a case study for this observation, the best example is undoubtedly Hydroworx. Hydroworx is a company that specializes in rehabilitation therapy with the aid of water. A lot of sports superstars, with the likes of Robert Griffith III are amongst their clientele. They have been voted for five times in a row as the ‘Best places to work in PA.’ When asked about how they were able to achieve this feat, their answer was simply that they only hire professionals who are truly interested and passionate about sports rehab, rather than a person with a huge experience in the field but their only enthusiasm being a paycheck at the end of the month.

Hiring a great candidate does not necessarily mean that you have to sieve through hundreds of cover letters or resumes. The process can be as simple as going with what your gut tells you. According to the book Blink written by Malcolm Gladwell, a person’s gut is right more often than it is being given due credit. So hire the candidate who gives you a good gut feeling with their personality because they can prove to be a more valuable recruit than those with a huge list of experiences on their curriculum vitae.