What is a personality hire?
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What is a personality hire?
By Vicki Salemi
In workplaces across the country, many workers are discussing the topic of “personality hires.”
Essentially, personality hires are employees hired for having the “it” factor. Typically, they’re charismatic with charming personalities, hired more for their magnetic personalities rather than their technical skills. They possess the ability to smooth over tough situations and build strong relationships with clients, customers and/or coworkers. Personality hires can also boost morale in the workplace, contribute to a positive work culture, and participate in company events.
Personality hires add positivity to a workplace, but they can create resentment, too. Here’s what it truly means to be a personality hire.
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PERSONALITY HIRES ARE A COMPANY’S BIGGEST CHEERLEADERS?
Consider this metaphor: it’s the bottom of the ninth inning. Personality hires are eagerly perched on the top step of the dugout cheering on their teammates at bat. As soon as a game-ending home run is smashed, they’re the first person greeting their teammate at home plate, high-fiving everyone—including the coaching staff.?
Simply stated, personality hires are excellent at building relationships and boosting morale. They have clubhouse presence.
According to a recent poll by Monster , almost half of workers (48%) self-identify as a personality hire and nearly 4 in 10 (39%) of workers feel personality hires receive opportunities and recognition that they haven’t earned.
THE DRAWBACKS OF PERSONALITY HIRES?
However, while it is important to have enthusiastic workers who improve morale, they should also be competent at the actual job they were hired to perform.?
The sweet spot is to possess both soft and hard skills. If a personality hire is constantly on the bench cheering—and remains on the bench—that could become an issue. Hopefully, a personality hire has substantial foundational skills to learn, grow, and flourish. At some point, they too should be able to step up to home plate.
As a former corporate recruiter, I recommend that hiring managers focus on identifying candidates who are in alignment with their company culture, people, and values—and who also have the correct technical skills and relevant experiences. If candidates don’t have direct experience in the opportunity they’re pursuing, hopefully, they demonstrate transferable skills such as customer service, to toggle to the new role with a strong foundation.
With a can-do attitude and proven track record even in another career path, personality hires can be trained in technical skills. But hiring on personality alone, without proven skills and a track record to learn and succeed, may be problematic.
Conversely, hiring an employee only based on their technical skills while overlooking if they are the right cultural fit is not the best choice either. It is often more difficult to train someone to become a good cultural fit than to teach someone technical skills.?
FINDING THE RIGHT BALANCE
To be sure, there are some roles where having more soft or hard skill is more or less beneficial. A head of sales role, where the primary responsibility is to manage clients, may be more suited for personality hires than an accounting role. For this kind of position, where the primary responsibility is number crunching and tax preparation, a more traditional hire could be a better match. The key is to find the right balance of personality hires for each team.?
Because unfortunately, a divide can develop between traditional hires and personality hires. Monster’s survey found that 42% of workers believe personality hires have more worth in the workplace and 58% of workers who say traditional hires are more valuable.?
I have found that hiring teams who focus on personalities over core skills can overlook the strong skill sets and experiences of traditional hires.
In turn, excellent candidates who are introverts may also be the right fit for an organization. But because they might not be as overt about their enthusiasm, introverts may be overlooked in favor of more extroverted personality hires. Personality hires may get more attention, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other strong candidates.?
While clubhouse presence is valuable to organizations, especially during dire times, to have morale boosters on the team, hiring managers should ensure they evaluate candidates for the skill sets they’re seeking while simultaneously seeking the right fit. Similarly, managers should evaluate their direct reports’ strengths and weaknesses, both soft and hard skills, to build upon them accordingly.
OK Bo?tjan Dolin?ek
Employee Relations Expert; resolving and preventing difficult people issues
4 个月“Personality hires” often turn out to be psychopath hires. All charm and politics; brutal to anyone who gets in their way.
Communications manager for Latin America & Gender referent | MSc International Affairs | Diversity & Inclusion | Globetrotter ?? ??♂?|
4 个月I thought that undoubtedly, it is essential to balance soft and hard skills in the hiring process without pigeonholing candidates solely based on the specific functions they are expected to perform. While there are basic qualities required for each position, personality traits and generational factors can influence and enhance the achievement of the intended objectives.
My Black Job is Inclusive Leadership, Marketing, PR, Change Management, Thought Leader, Entrepreneur, and Speaker. 2021 LGBT+ Business Advocate of the Year Award Winner.
4 个月I thought that companies only hire based on merit. If "personality fit" is a criteria then where is the merit? This is why #DEI is important because, and let's be honest with ourselves, most companies do hire based on the subjective criteria of "the right fit," which often means someone who looks and acts like the dominant culture in the corporation. Here is a real world example: A white male friend of mine was hiring for an IT role and informed me he was down to two candidates. He even stated that the person with the best qualifications for the job was the Brown male from India. However, my friend offered the role to the less qualified white male. Why? Because of "personality fit." In the end, my friend stated how the white male was a big football fan, as was my friend, while the Brown male was a cricket fan, and my friend based his hiring decision on wanting someone to talk football with during breaks. So this myth of hiring based on merit is complete nonsense. We all hire based on "personality fit" versus merit. Which is why #EDI initiatives are important and needed in corporations today. #LetsBreakSomeEggs!