Why We Hire For Attitude BEFORE Skillset

Our hiring model is a little different form the average recruiting and staffing firm. As a recruiting company, we are hired for long term and often high end positions, so we need to make sure we put the right candidate in the right spot.

Attitude really encompasses a person’s willingness to learn, ability to work in a group or independently, and excitement about work. Bringing a person on your team, especially a small one, who doesn’t have a good attitude, can disrupt the production flow immediately. Even if the candidate was the most highly qualified on paper.

Hiring for skills first, means we might overlook some critical fit flaws. For example, if you’re hiring an executive sales position, you need a person who is willing to cultivate pipelines and close deals. A resume only tells you the type of environments a person has worked in and the years of experience. Not if they liked the work.

So we have to uncover whether a person is wired to succeed in a certain position. How? By asking open ended behavioral questions. Ask a person how they would handle a common situation in the office. Stay away from asking vague questions about their time at a company. An example would be: What did you do on an average day?

We want a person to ENJOY the work they will be doing. That’s the best way to ensure they succeed, and you’ve invested the time in the right candidate. You can teach any person with the right attitude the appropriate skills. You will never be able to teach a person to want to come to work everyday, no matter the skill level.

It’s critical to understand that no one’s full story is on paper. It’s good to set guidelines for the candidate search, but don’t count out applicants with less experience than you hope, because their attitude might make all the difference.

 

Have any questions on how to implement a recruiting model like ours? Contact us