30 Jan Hire for attitude – train for skill
Most practices base their candidate screening and selection around a list of work skills. While skills are important (you can’t employ a secretary to fill a trust lawyer vacancy), using only skill sets in the selection process fails to take into account other important aspects of an applicant.
The crucial quality that most interviews fail to measure is ATTITUDE. Applicants with a good attitude make the best employees. They will apply themselves positively to every endeavour within your practice.
After all, Richard Branson left school at 16 years old. As a job applicant he would have been rejected by nearly all companies (including Virgin Group his own company) because of his lack of qualifications.
How do you identify people with positive attitude?
During an interview candidates will tell you how positive and keen they are, but how can you be sure?
1. Examine previous work experience for a positive work ethic – perhaps mentioned in a written reference, or from people you know in common.
2. Look for examples in their history that demonstrate perseverance (including outside work examples). This is one of the more important factors in recruitment as it is a prime indicator when it comes to retention. When confronted with problems perseverance means that they will look for positive solutions. Someone with low perseverance will look for another job.
3. Evidence of achievement – avoid the fatal combination of ineffectiveness and perseverance.
4. Ability to work with people without continuous conflict.
5. Commitment to your practice and the role.
A candidate with a positive attitude will be extremely passionate and have a sense of purpose. Their attitude will always be determined by the purpose of their goals. They will have clear goals in life and a sense of self belief (that they have the ability to achieve these goals). A positive attitude is the product of clear goals in life and a passion for these goals. If a candidate can clearly articulate their life goals, and the vacant position clearly adds to achieving these goals, then you will have a hard working and high achieving employee.
In this tight labour market you will have much better outcomes if you select candidates based on these five criteria, and make up any shortfall in skills with training. If you are currently looking for applicants that exactly match your skills list your vacancies will remain vacant for a very long time. Better to select candidates with 70% of the skills and 100% positive attitude.
Hire for attitude – train for skill.
Sadly, many practices still select future employees based on skill and try and train (unsuccessfully) for attitude. The time taken for additional training of a applicant with a positive attitude is always less than managing the bad habits of an experienced candidate with poor attitude.
An employee with a positive attitude will appreciate that you have given them a good opportunity to further their career and as a result remain very loyal to your practice.