Recruit for Attitude, Train for Skill

Melanie Veness:  PCB CEO

Every business at some point will have to recruit new staff. A vacancy may arise as a result of someone leaving a post or new positions are created for whatever reason.

Recruitment can be a complicated business and a costly operation, but it is not something that businesses can afford to approach lightly, because making the right choice is essential. Anyone that has ever faced the consequences of having appointed the wrong individual can attest to how costly that can be.

Not only does the incumbent need to have the necessary skills, but he or she also needs to have the right “competencies” or soft skills; they need to be able to work with your team and customers and they need to fit your business culture. Quite a tall order, and more often than not, one has to choose the “best” candidate for the job, which means, essentially, that you have to compromise somewhere.

I read a very interesting article recently about how a successful company in the UK goes about recruiting the right staff. Their recruitment philosophy is “recruit for attitude, train for skill”.

My initial reaction to that statement was to think, “hang on”, I thought that the whole purpose of recruiting was to buy the necessery skills? But the more I thought about it, the more I realised that it's more difficult to instill in people the right attitude, than it is to train them to have the necessary skills.

Consider how much easier it is to teach someone how to use a particular computer program than it is to teach him or her to have a positive attitude or to be a creative problem solver. Qualities like resourcefulness, reliability and self-motivation are not something one can instill easily and I think that it's fair to say that getting the job done the right way is about having the correct attitude.

This made me think about the people I have employed over the years, and I have to admit, that the most committed and loyal staff members were those that I took a chance on; those whom I believed in, because I recognised, that even though they may not have had the required experience, they possessed qualities that were more important to the organisation.

Thinking back also reminded me of how a bad attitude affects, and can infect other staff members, and if not effectively dealt with, it can spread like cancer through an organisation.  Surely, a bunch of enthusiastic, go-getters who are willing to learn whatever is needed, deliver more value, than a skilled lot who are arrogant, sullen and unmotivated? 

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