Do\r\nyou agree with Peter Schutz, the former CEO of Porsche? He said once in a\r\nwell-articulated way “Hire character, train skill”. More and more recruiters\r\nrealise that it’s not all about just having the right set of skills. Often it\r\nseems that the character of a person plays a more important role when looking\r\nfor the right person.
"},"body":{"body":"Do you agree with Peter Schutz, the\r\nformer CEO of Porsche? He said once in a well-articulated way “Hire character,\r\ntrain skill”. More and more recruiters realise that it’s not all about just\r\nhaving the right set of skills. Often it seems that the character of a person plays\r\na more important role when looking for the right person. The focus lies on the\r\napplicant’s personality, demeanour, experience, drive, adaptability, fast\r\nlearning, problem solving and creative thinking. Specific specialist skills,\r\nknowledge and understanding can be taught and easily be learnt by the person.
We can say that there are two types\r\nof “fresh” graduates: Those who focus entirely on completing their studies and\r\ngaining their degrees and think the corporate world starts afterwards. And\r\nthose who during their studies use the opportunity to gain experiences, extend\r\ntheir network, make use of their skills and earn money in the process too.\r\nWould I have to hire one of them I would always give the preference to the one\r\nstudent who showed to be a multitasker. The one who does not just have a degree\r\n(regardless of what the final grade is) but who gained already some insights\r\ninto the corporate world.
A candidate might have the perfect set\r\nof skills that the company is looking for but still be rejected due to other\r\nreasons. Someone could be the most talented individual but if s/he doesn’t have\r\nthe right values and character s/he will not fit into the organisation.
Imagine there are two candidates – Bill\r\nand Steve - who are attending an assessment week at a company. The result at\r\nthe end of the week is as follows: Bill has all the required skills but does\r\nnot make a good culture fit and doesn’t seem to work hard and in the best\r\ninterest of the company. Steve has a skills gap which the company identified\r\nbut:
Now who would you hire? Honestly, I\r\nhope your choice would be Steve. He proved that his work ethic and attitude were\r\nimpeccable, while his skills gap could easily be overcome by providing him with\r\ntailor-made training. Bill would not have needed any further training but his\r\nlack of commitment towards the company and the poor culture fit could have led\r\nto several conflicts and issues in the long run.
Remember, attitude is not really\r\nsomething you can teach someone, either you have it or you don’t have it. If a\r\ncandidate needs to be reminded continuously – or even forced – to do things or\r\nbehave in a certain way in order to achieve the desired outcome, it is not\r\nsomething that will benefit the company. It’s therefore much more beneficial to\r\nhire people with the right mindset and provide them with training that helps\r\nthem to excel in their future tasks. There are still some open questions\r\nregarding the training offered to Steve that would need to be considered. For\r\nexample:
In the book “Put your mindset to work” James Reed, Chairman of Reed, wrote “I\r\nmight not know which skills will be most in demand in 10 years, but I do know\r\nexactly what sort of people I will want to hire in ten years. Good people, of\r\nintegrity, who are persistent, passionate, energetic, innovative, optimistic\r\nand resilient.” Barry Hoffman, HR director of Computacenter, shares a similar\r\nopinion “Skills can be trained and our industry is fast-moving, so a skill\r\ntoday may only have eighteen months’ currency because the technology moves so\r\nquickly. What we want is the mindset more than skills that may well be out of\r\ndate in as short time.” Or in Warren Buffet’s own words “In looking for people\r\nto hire, you look for 3 qualities: integrity, intelligence and energy. And if\r\nthey don’t have the first, the other two will kill you.”
"},"authorName":"Karin Schroeck-Singh","authorBio":{"authorBio":"Karin Schroeck-Singh is a passionate Public Speaker, eBook Author, and a freelancing Online Content Producer. She has an MBA from the University of Leicester (UK) and gained 18 years of international work experience in Italy, the UK and India."},"publishedOn":"2015-05-08T20:43:48.363Z"}},"pageContext":{"id":"aa6677e8-15ec-5bef-97f1-0de5302bec3b"}}, "staticQueryHashes": []}