Look For These 5 Character Traits To Avoid Disastrous Hiring Decisions
By: Heather Macindoe
Tags: Hiring Tips, Hiring Strategy, Recruiting

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Let’s face it- nobody enjoys having to undo a bad hiring decision. [And if you do have someone on your team who does enjoy it, you might want to re-think the power you’ve entrusted them with]

Undoing a bad hiring decision can be downright unpleasant. It’s not just the sunk cost of time and money. The impact can reverberate around your business long after the problem has been resolved.

Bad hires are disruptive to your team, can spell disaster to your client relationships, and can severely impact the potential to attract new talent to your organisation. Good candidates are risk-averse to workplaces with high turnover. They are reluctant to apply for re-advertised roles.

Getting your recruitment right can have a dramatic effect on staff engagement, company performance and profit. I truly believe that your people [and the team that they form] have the potential to be the competitive advantage you have in your market sector. As such, it’s important to get your recruitment right.

Work out who’s been successful in the role in the past, and why. Bad hiring decisions rarely come down to qualifications, skill, or relevant experience. More often there’s a gap in the desired behaviours or character traits that exposes a new recruit for a poor fit or bad hire.

“Hire for attitude, train for skill” is a common ‘go-to’ hiring theory — but how far do you take it?

There are some obvious exceptions. Quite frankly, I’m okay if my surgeon has a crappy outlook. I need to know they have the appropriate qualifications and some hands-on actual experience under their belt before I go under his/her knife. Same goes for the pilot on any flight I’m booked on.

There are thousands of roles that the ‘hire for attitude’ philosophy just doesn’t fit. The point is striking a balance between essential credentials/technical skills and desired character traits.

Somewhere early on in my recruitment career, someone handed me this useful gem:

“Look for patterns of achievement, courtesy, honesty, ambition and a sense of general wellbeing. The Five Behavioural ‘H’s.

*High Achieving* Humble* Honest*Happy *Hungry*

It’s still my favourite, well worn, go-to item in my recruiter ‘toolkit’

I found it easier to remember the impact of the opposite behaviours and have a Post-it affixed to my screen stating; “No Dunderheads, No Big Heads, No Bad, Sad or Lazy Asses!”

High achieving- are they smart; do they have a record of achievement; have they ever stretched beyond what they thought they were capable of; are they proud of something they’ve done; have they delivered to or exceeded a target; are they innovative; have they learned any new tricks lately

Humble- An arrogant genius is hard to work with- Personally, I have an aversion to a sense of entitlement. In recent a bulk intake campaign, I ran revealed a spate of “Early Onset Entitlement” across a particular cohort. Do you really want or need a big head on your team? Look for appropriate social protocols- Is your candidate polite and respectful? Are they likely to “play nicely” with their peers?

Honest — well, obviously, but I’m also referring to a level of openness. Why are they exploring new roles? Many think it’s a cardinal sin in to speak badly about an employer at an interview. The sad reality is there are lots of shabby workplaces out there. I prefer to talk about it. If the role appears to be a backward or parallel move, I really need to know the underpinning motivation for considering a move. I applaud the senior manager I spoke with, who leaned in and quietly confessed he had a case of ‘The Pretendies’ (Impostor Syndrome) and was losing too much sleep- or the guy who was prepared to take a huge pay cut ‘cos he had “three little curly-haired boys at home ..” and he just couldn’t take any more of leaving them from Monday to Friday in his FIFO role.

Happy- being on the job market isn’t always the most cheerful time in a person’s life. For some, it’s fraught with fear, anxiety or embarrassment. Aside from needing a new job, do they present an air of general wellbeing? I’m not looking for a Pollyanna-but I will avoid the ‘Eeyores.’ (Winnie the Pooh- A.A Milne)

Hungry- Do they demonstrate a level ‘get up and go’? Are they genuinely interested in career progression as a result of mastering thier craft, or is it just the paycheck? Do they still have a heart for the game or are they trading on past successes? Are they still working on their own personal development? Are they ambitious? Can they articulate their long term career aspirations? What are they reading right now?

Try targeting these traits at the interview, while also factoring in the required technical skills or qualifications. You might be surprised at how much easier it is to filter the extraordinary from the good or average. (or as I like to call it; “Sorting the “ Meh…from the HELL YEAH!” )