Recruit Based on Personality, Not Just Experience

Recruiting can be hard work, stressful and challenging, especially when it gets in the way of your day to day job. There are so many things to consider: Do they have the right skills for the role? Are they qualified? Will they fit in? Usually it’s very much down to guess work with no real evidence that they’re capable of delivering, until it’s too late and they’re sat in your office. Below you’ll find a number of reasons why it’s just as important to recruit based on an individual’s personality, not just their experience and skills in an interview

A Successful Team is a Happy Team

At some point in your career this would have happened, we’ve all been there, you’re happy in your job, you’re working in a great team and with people that you’d consider good friends, not just work colleagues. Everything is rosy and then a new employee starts. No matter what level that person is, if you don’t see eye-to-eye and their personality drives you mad, things can turn sour very quickly. What was a great, healthy working environment has taken a nose dive into gossip-fuelled, discontented and fragmented place to work in. Team culture is precious. When employees are in tune and share the same values, attitudes, and beliefs, they work together like a well-oiled machine. Their suited personalities allow them to relate and understand each other, not to mention develop deep, sincere friendships. The right culture fit can also positively affect commitment, drive and loyalty, ultimately dramatically reducing turnover. Trying to headhunt someone from a team that’s in tune with each other becomes so much harder so there are a number of benefits to getting the right fit for your existing team, not just the job role itself. Your employees enjoy coming to work, they have no problem putting in extra hours and they turn down jobs with your competitors, even if it means turning down a pay rise. This is why large recruitment firms now have psychometric departments concentrating solely on assessments

“Most skills can be learned, but it is difficult to train people on their personality” – Richard Branson

Richard Branson wrote a great article on his recruitment strategy and how personality is the first thing he looks at when recruiting, followed by skills and experience. If it works for him, one of the most successful businessmen, it can certainly work for you. I’ve been in recruitment for nearly 20 years and it never fails to amuse me how much important information potential employees leave out of their CV not to mention how many people get over looked by HR or Hiring Managers because they don’t fit the exact mould of the job description which are usually ill-conceived in the first place. Most recruitment strategies use more traditional methods that consist of Interview and Background checks but there’s still a huge 74% undiffined risk that is left to "gut feeling". Using Psychometric Tests as part of your strategy dramatically reduces that risk to 25%. Applicants that haven’t added the write keywords or have left out valuable information have a chance to shine.

As a business why would you want to employ a person that’s going to upset the eb and flow of your well-oiled machine? Looking for personality traits that complement your existing workforce doesn’t only help with attrition, but it makes your team feel like they’re an integral part of the company’s success which is an essential part of the employment experience

What are your thoughts? Do you look for personality traits over skills? Would you use a psychometric test to glean more information? Depending who’s reading this, would you take a personal psychometric test to attach to your application? Whether you’re a believer or not I’d like to hear your comments and suggestions by leaving a comment below

If you'd like to take a psychometric test or use it as part of your recruitment strategy please contact me directly on [email protected]