Which Should You Hire, Skills or Personality?

February 12, 2019 5:38 pm Published by bbaltasar

Success does not come easy, and you will need help to achieve it. Your company needs you at its center, but it cannot function with you alone. A growing company needs a growing workforce, and to truly achieve success along the way, you need the perfect team to assist you in the journey.

Choosing the best people to work with you can be more complicated than it seems. Almost every employer wishes to find people that can be with the company for a long time, especially if it is a fairly new company. During the hiring process, it will be difficult to be sure if a person will be the right fit for your team in the long run. That is why you need to provide specifications on who to hire.

One of the things to consider when hiring a new employee is choosing whether to go with personality or skill. Both aspects are important in keeping the business and your team at its best, but are different on what they bring overall.

The Skillful Chap

Choosing to hire employees because of their skill set gives the company someone already ready to take on the challenges of their job. This kind of employee is highly desired by many companies and will be a great asset to the team. They are driven and focused, which are highly positive traits, but can be the problem sometimes. They can be so focused that they sometimes forget to interact and be close with others. This can bring a strain to the relationship of the team and can lead to misunderstandings and office morale.

Everyone’s Buddy

Personality on the other hand can make or break you. Personal interactions are unavoidable, and people with a pleasant personality can attract not only customers, but also investors. Employees can be taught and can improve their technical skills exponentially, but personality is something innate and cannot be fully trained. However, you cannot know how long those technical skills can improve at first glance. Investing on trainings and mentorship can cost you much valued time and resources.

Given that both choices have their pros and cons, what you need is to determine which would be better for your company. Companies vary in how they are run and managed. Some companies take their time to nurture and mentor new hires and help them show their full potential. Other companies, however, want their employees to step in to do their duties immediately, intent on using the skills they are paying for. Another basis, you can focus on is the nature of the job you are providing. Those which are customer-centric and in need of friendly disposition need employees who are approachable and friendly. Jobs which are more focused on the technical capabilities of an employee on the other hand, don’t have to focus on work relationships and interactions.

Once you have specified what your company needs, it will be easier for you to find the next member of your team. And if you are lucky, you might just find people persons with technical skills you will be proud of already.