Recruiting on character or skills that is the question

Recruiting on character or skills that is the question.

I’ve see an awful lot of job ads, job descriptions  and specifications- Good ones, bad ones and plenty in the middle.

The one’s I know which have been given due care and attention are those which go beyond just the skills required to do the job, but also talk about the personality you need to succeed in the role. This shows that the employer is placing an emphasis – not just on the things you need to be able to do, but also the way you go about doing it.

So if you’re choosing between candidates, what should you be placing the greatest emphasis on?

The truth is, of course, that in some roles a certain skillset is non-negotiable. Once that is understood, you can then decide between those candidates with the skills, and it becomes about the character; how they will fit into the team, self motivation, ambitions, how they are motivated, etc.

However, in many roles, we see businesses say ‘we want xx years of experience’ when this line is not necessary for the job, and simply narrowing down the pool of quality candidates. When recruiting, we see success not just as placing a member of staff with a business, but with that member of staff staying there! For that to happen, it is the person’s character and ‘fit’ within an organisation which is far more valuable.

There are two key points. Firstly, skills can be developed with on the job training and over time.  In addition a thought through training programme which moulds new staff to the needs of the business is often much faster and more efficient than trying to teach an experienced member of staff new methods. Secondly, character is much harder to change. If you have the most skilled technician possible but they wind people up, are lazy, don’t push themselves and don’t think of the business first, then it doesn’t matter how good they are at their specific task, they will probably harm the business.

We see this in the apprentices we place with businesses. Often these candidates come into a business with lower skill levels and need time to get up to the level you want them to be at – but don’t underestimate the capabilities of a keen new employee to take on information. On the flip side, a candidate coming with a lack of character is going to need more than just time, and they may never be the person you need for your team.

Practically, though, what does this look like? Firstly, recruiters need a system in place to monitor for character when taking new staff on. It can be too easy to go straight for skills because these are quantifiable. At the initial CV filtering stage, of course it makes sense to judge by these quantifiable points. But for those skills to be of real benefit to a team in the long term, the host needs to be of decent character, and meeting in person can only discover that. There also needs to be questions in our interview process designed to draw out answers which reveal character.

Secondly, if possible, I would advocate using personality/behavioural profiling with candidates you wish to employ. If this is in place with your existing team, then you will have an understanding of the kind of team members you already have and the complimentary character profiles you need to bring in. Personality profiling makes character quantifiable and does not necessarily require face-to-face interaction.

Thirdly, and something I always recommend when appointing to senior roles, is to conduct peer interviews. We have seen all to often a management team appoint a member of staff and simply pass them to the team when ready. If this person doesn’t fit in you could get a poor member of the team, or you could easily lose key existing members of the team.

So, character or skills? It’s inevitably a combination but don’t confuse the highest skill level with the best candidate.