Don’t get me wrong – having the skills to get a job done is important from a hiring perspective. But in today’s recruitment process, employers are still too fixated on the stated skills in a resume and the applicant’s past employment history when shortlisting candidates for interviews.
Resume-reading, is as old an art form as the written word, and it’s failing organisations in hiring the right talent. Skills are important but should only ever be part of the equation. More important is whether the candidate you are selecting is the best person for your business?
By best, I mean attitude, ambition, work ethic, personality, temperament.
The right cultural fit. After all, research tells us the majority of new hires fail for reasons of attitude.
In addition, when you stop relying only on resume-reading to shortlist candidates, the benefit is that you will quickly begin to access a wider talent pool. That’s important today given the talent shortages we see in many industries and the need to attract applicants from other disciplines. After all, you can train for skills.
But even in those occupations where you have to have certain skills, the lawyer, the dentist, the technician, those candidates should also be evaluated for attitude and fit ahead of skills.
If you get the hiring process wrong, the costs can be heavy and detrimental to the bottom line of the business, damaging the culture.
On top of wasting time and money, the impact of high staff turnover will have a negative impact on staff morale and limit the company’s ability to build productive teams. That’s why the hiring process, given the damage it can cause if you get it wrong, should be viewed in exactly the same way as another other major investment.
When it comes to weighing up the odds between cultural fit and skill, many companies have now realised positive cultural fit is associated with positive outcomes for the business. Positive cultural fit can often be related to greater job satisfaction, higher commitment, stronger retention rates and superior job performance.
It also goes further than this, with many employers finding a relationship between cultural fit and mental and physical health and wellbeing. Given we spend so much time at work, it’s critical the environment is a place you want to be having people you respect and can get on with.
For companies to ensure staff turnover is at the lowest possible level, they need to acknowledge cultural fit and attitude are both fundamental attributes that need to be assessed in the recruitment and selection process. In return, organisations will quickly find they are hiring the best people for their business, reducing turnover, saving money and developing a more productive and happy workforce. [tweet_quote hashtags=”#recruitment” ]Resume-reading to select candidates for interviews is no longer enough[/tweet_quote]. To get the best talent, start selecting candidates based on attitude and fit.
