The advice to “hire for attitude and train for skills” presents employers with a challenge. It requires them to abandon a fixation on past career histories in order to evaluate candidates in a more holistic way.
Your hiring process should go beyond looking at candidates’ education and training and their on-the-job experience. Those are all easy to measure, but they are not a measure of the candidate’s suitability to fill your vacancy.
For some jobs, specific educational requirements are non-negotiable (think teachers, nurses, accountants, engineers, etc.). Certain skills are essential from Day One, but other skills that are necessary for future success in many jobs can be acquired through training.
There may be some value in three or five years of experience, but only if the experience is relevant and if the person did the work in the right way. Five years of doing a job poorly is likely worse than having never done the job at all. It’s easier to learn new skills than to first unlearn bad habits developed over years before training to do the job properly.
It is unwise to think believe an applicant who has done a similar job in the past has the skills for the position you need filled. Instead, you should anticipate hiring people who will need training to meet your performance expectations, even if they have done a similar job before.
Requiring applicants to have a specific number of years of experience does not at all guarantee they have the right skills to do the job you are offering. Including a long list of required skills in advertising in the hope of attracting the right person may instead discourage very trainable individuals from applying because they lack some of the “required” skills.
It’s enticing to think that you will be able to hire people with all the skills you require. It would certainly reduce your training costs! Employers may also feel they can’t afford to wait for new employees to learn the skills needed.
But ideal potential employees are rare.
Accepting that no one will be able to step into a new job and be immediately productive frees you to move beyond focusing on only skills when hiring. It allows you to examine potential an employee’s attitude and to consider what they could add to the culture of your workplace.
In the hiring context, attitude is more than being “friendly” or “enthusiastic.” It is about how people approach work. What is their commitment to customer service and collaboration? Do they apply their creativity and integrity to their work? What motivates them?
Some will argue that candidates can fake attitude but they can’t fake skills. Anticipating that this may be the case, ask questions that require candidates to describe how their commitment to customers service, collaboration with co-workers, or making carefully considered decisions was reflected in their performance in previous work settings.
To learn more about how a candidate’s past performance has reflected their values and attitudes, confirm what you hear during interviews when checking references.
When you commit to hiring for attitude and some skills, it’s important to identify which skills are fundamental to the job and required on Day One and for which skills you are prepared to give the new employee training.
In a twist on the oft-used interview questions, “What are your career goals?” and “Where do you want to be in five years?” (which in a previous article I advised not asking during interviews), instead set learning targets for newly hired staff that will make them successful in your organization.
As their supervisor, identify what you expect their skill level to be in two years’ time and establish milestones along the way.
If you plan to hire primarily for attitude and are prepared to train new employees, it’s important, during the hiring process, to assess their motivation to learn. Has their past performance reflected their willingness to learn new skills and to do so quickly?
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