You Hire for Attitude But Cry About Skill Shortages
Organisations' attitude narrative is just as weak as their "we are a family" one.
Hire for skills and knowledge and fire for behaviour and here is why. Start with this 3 minutes video that proved me right with a real case study! I absolutely loved this! Finance vs AI.
I cannot tell you how many times I have sat in meetings discussing the “hire for attitude and train for skills” strategy that started with “WE HAVE SKILL SHORTAGES.” I used to sit there thinking, “Don’t these people see the contradiction between the problem they are trying to solve and the solution they came up with?”
Organizations don’t ask for much when it comes to attitude so, if that’s your hiring criteria, the bar is incredibly low. That’s not a strategy, it’s avoidance. You can’t build a recruitment approach on attitude because you’ll keep filling your organization with incompetence.
I have written about this in the past - Who Is Going to Train Those Skills If We Are All Here Because of Our Attitude? - but here it is from another angle.
Training people costs a fortune, but firing people with bad attitudes costs less. By the way, everyone gets hired for skills, knowledge, expertise, and competence, and almost everyone gets fired for attitude. Even if the attitude is the right one but it may go against the boss's ideas. So, who decides about that attitude criteria??? Just asking for a friend:-))
I have seen people with great attitudes (a feeling or opinion about something or someone) and behaviour (observable action or response in a given situation) who were right about the matter get fired because their attitude went against the boss's idea or challenged the organisation's unethical doings. We all know about whistleblowing cases, right? So don't give me the BS of hiring for attitude. Nobody gets hired for that, but most people get fired for it.
Also, if we are that concerned about our attitude, why do we fire the good people and keep the horrible ones? Why are organisations riddled with people with questionable attitudes and behaviour? Why do employees complain about bullying, being shouted at, harassed, and all that? Organisations' attitude narrative is just as weak as their "we are a family" one. They cannot deliver it, so maybe it is time to stop saying things that are easily thrown away by the first sign of possible profit gain. You fire your family members when you want to increase profit, and you don't fire toxic people when they are the top salespeople or the ones who cover up your wrongdoings. Come on now!
But the trend is changing, and finally, the world can see what I have been saying for years: HIRE FOR SKILLS.
Here is the latest recruitment report to help you escape the old saying of nothing. I strongly recommend looking at #6 because I have been saying this for years as well and written about in my book below:-))))) The times of delusion are over! Let's face reality.
Attitude and behavior matters but not in every role, every situation, or in the overly simplistic way we often talk about it. Big companies didn’t become successful because their founders had great attitudes or behavior (most had rather poor one). They succeeded because their people were competent, and their leaders had clarity of vision and unwavering focus on execution.
My book: The Corporate Kindergarten
