Hiring Talent On Attitude Or Aptitude?

Recently I spent a large part of the day interviewing candidates for a publishing position for a large government agency. What struck me during and after the interviews was the tension I felt between hiring with wit and not just resume. That is, my desire to hire a whole person based on their skills AND their attitude and not just their aptitude.

Sure government sector recruitment process is based on MERIT selection, however today there is an increasing need to consider more holistic factors in the selection of talent.

Building great teams with great cultures, values and performance is based heavily on the people you bring into the team. One person, with poor interpersonal skills or an indifference to the importance of customer service, can destroy collaboration and team morale. This in turn can affect performance, results and ultimately staff retention.

What has become apparent to me over time is that the people with outstanding resumes aren’t always the best fit for the team.

In the general discussion between the panel members and I after the interviews was that what we have found is that if you hire people for their people skills and intelligence you can later teach them the more technical skills.

Obviously by the time you get through the short listing phase to the interview, all of the interview candidates COULD do the job. What you then need to search for is the person who WILL do the job AND be the best fit for the organization or team’s DNA.

To do this you need to ask questions during the interview process to find out more about each applicant’s personality – how they work in a team, what motivates them, how they believe they add value and the way they deal with issues and conflicting priorities.

You also need to make sure you can drill down and get to the real person. Many people are professional applicants – that is they are well rehearsed and practised at interview and often the responses they give are planned and polished scripts that don’t reveal their true self. To combat this I ask lots of “How specifically?” questions to make sure I keep drilling down into the content of their experience and take their answers beyond the rehearsed response.

Similarly, as you are undertaking this discovery process, candidates, particularly the Generation X and Y applicants, will be using the interview to discover your company’s style, values and approach to corporate social responsibility. Having already checked out the financial compensation you are offering they will be trying to discover what is emotionally attractive about your company.

The next best way to uncover the person within the applicant is to undertake referee checks. When doing referee checks be sure to ask lots of questions about the persons behaviour and attitude not just their aptitude.

So the next time you’re seeking a new recruit for your team, consider interviewing and hiring the whole person and not just the one with an impressive resume.