Should Employers Hire For Personality or Skill?

I was asked to write about hiring on personality. Does it really matter? Yes, it really does! So where do skills fall? I thought you had to have the skills to get hired. You do. But common sense says, you can teach a skill, you can’t teach personality. But in all the job descriptions you read, they stress the skills. Ahh, but do they? A lot of job descriptions mention “The must haves” and if you read them correctly, they share a bit of the kind of person that will fit in their culture.

So, what if the role is remote? Does personality really count since you are not with people day in day out? Probably even more so! How you conduct yourself over TEAMS, ZOOM or other video apps is everything. Attitude, tone, body language and expressions say so much about a person.

I had a client who didn’t get hired because he could not look at a person in the eyes. I had a client that did not get hired because they rolled their eyes every time they thought they were asked a dumb question. I watch, listen and hear and judge for a living when it comes to recruiting. I ask all sorts of questions to get reactions. You bet I look for attitude, tone, and movement!!

Skills are necessary; just like experience, where you have worked and your accomplishments at your workplace. It all adds up. But when it comes to a hire, it will be the person that gets along with others, shows respect and kindness, let alone true interest that gets the offer. It is the person they see fitting in, or shaking it up that gets the offer. When push comes to shove on getting an offer after all the skills and experience are viewed and judged, it is the personality of that person that will get the job offer.

Now, if they accepted it or not will be up to them😊

I teach, I hear, I listen, I educate on how to show the best version of YOU! Do you know what your version is??