Social media has given the term ‘personality hire’ a negative connotation, suggesting that companies are now ignoring a candidate’s skills and competencies entirely and only hiring people who are outgoing and energetic.
The truth is, a candidate’s personality almost always impacts the hiring decision.
The real question is: how heavily should personal traits weigh into that decision?
A balanced approach is often best. Focusing too much on personality can prove detrimental, but ignoring personal characteristics also comes at a price.
A personality hire isn’t necessarily an extroverted cheerleader. When companies overemphasise personality in the hiring decision, it means they skew toward candidates that exhibit certain characteristics, mindsets, attributes and values that the company deem important.
There is no single ‘type’ that defines a personality hire universally and no single right or wrong answer when it comes to deciding how much emphasis to place on personal attributes. However, skewing too far in either direction will likely pose problems for any organisation.
On one end of the spectrum are organisations that only consider the technical skills and experience that are directly applicable to the role they’re filling. An individual who has a stellar CV and ticks all the boxes for the required job skills is often likely to secure the position, regardless of their personal traits. Yet, there is no shortage of evidence that hard skills and experience aren’t enough to guarantee success.
When a company doesn’t factor personality into the hiring decision, you risk hiring a disruptive individual who wreaks havoc without adding value. A leader with exceptional credentials can do significant damage if they’re condescending, controlling, or resistant to change. At some point, their technical capabilities simply don’t matter.
You can end up with a team that isn’t aligned with your culture or values. Culture can help successful change initiatives happen but conversely, employees who don’t fit your culture or support your values end up working at cross-purposes.
On the other extreme lie the companies that allow a candidate’s personality to overshadow the fact that their skills and experience don’t match up with the role’s requirements. Whether consciously or not, they rationalise the candidate’s shortcomings and focus instead on how well they’ll fit in.
If you skew too far in this direction, your company begins to attract candidates who all ‘look’ the same, which discourages a more diverse candidate pool from advancing. However, diversity of personality is just as important to an organisation’s success as diversity of age, gender or race.
Innovation and creativity are stifled. When everyone involved thinks the same, it generally leads to missed opportunities and poor decision-making.
A look-a-like workforce can discourage outliers from speaking up. This often happens when a charismatic leader hires direct reports who are just like them, building a silo of ‘mini-me’ that often conflict with their peers in other functions.
If you primarily hire extroverts - as social media suggests is happening - you’ll find their voices dominating the conversation, often leaving others little time to think and reflect.
Eventually, any introverts in the group will stop trying to contribute and even leave the company, taking their talents with them.
Focusing too much or too little on personality is especially problematic when filling leadership roles.
In today’s volatile world, the most successful leaders exhibit personality attributes such as agility, adaptability, open-mindedness and resilience. Yet, some leadership roles in certain industries also require specific experience and technical skills.
Without the right balance, you risk hiring a leader who isn’t equipped to succeed.
How can organisations maintain balance when weighing the importance of a candidate’s personality during the hiring process?
Be open-minded in developing job requirements. When talent is in short supply, broader competencies and personality traits often become just as important as technical skills.
Consider whether certain hard skills and experiences are truly must-haves, or nice-to-haves.
Use a structured interview process. Without structure, interviewers can get caught up in developing rapport and end up favouring a candidate they like personally, or succumbing to other hiring biases. A structured interview process involves carefully crafting questions, asking them consistently across all candidates and taking detailed notes that will guide the evaluation step later.
Involve multiple interviewers, as a panel or sequentially to ensure you tap broader perspectives.
Broaden the candidate pool. With talent increasingly difficult to find, it’s important to look beyond the same sources you’ve typically considered. Casting a wider net is likely to yield a more diverse group of candidates, both from an experience and personality standpoint.
Personality is only one facet to consider during the complex undertaking of hiring the right people. However, by keeping it in proper balance, organisations can increase the odds of selecting the candidate most likely to succeed in the role.
Peter Henry is the managing partner for Scotland at Odgers Berndtson
