Why Hiring for Attitude and Personality is the Future
As businesses evolve, one hiring mistake continues to cost companies millions: prioritising skills over attitude and personality. While technical expertise is essential, the right mindset, adaptability, and cultural fit often determine an employee's long-term success.
CEOs, HR leaders, and team managers who focus solely on skills may find themselves dealing with high turnover rates, disengaged employees, and misaligned teams. Today’s hiring strategies need to go beyond the resume.
So, why do attitude and personality matter more in hiring than skills? Let’s break it down.
Skills Can Be Taught, But Attitude is Harder to Change
A candidate with a growth mindset can learn new skills, upskill, and adapt to evolving job roles. However, someone with the wrong attitude—whether resistant to change, lacking accountability, or struggling with collaboration—can hold back an entire team.
A study by Leadership IQ found that 46% of new hires fail within 18 months, and 89% of those failures are due to attitude, not skills.
Hiring coachable, adaptable individuals ensures they grow with your company rather than becoming stagnant in their role.
Personality Determines Team Success and Retention
Building high-performing teams isn’t just about filling roles with skilled employees—it’s about creating synergy.
🔹 A brilliant but toxic employee can disrupt team dynamics, leading to lower engagement and higher turnover.
🔹 Employees with strong communication, emotional intelligence, and resilience drive team cohesion and long-term success.
When hiring for personality, you ensure employees fit into your workplace culture and contribute positively to collaboration, leadership, and overall team morale.
The Cost of Hiring the Wrong Person
The wrong hire can be expensive. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the cost of a bad hire is at least 30% of their annual salary. For leadership roles, this figure is even higher due to lost productivity and damage to company culture.
HR leaders and business owners who integrate personality profiling tools like Tema into their hiring process can make data-driven decisions that prevent costly hiring mistakes.
Does This Mean Skills Are Not Important?
Not at all. Skills remain a crucial part of hiring, but they should be viewed as a baseline requirement, not the only deciding factor.
🔹 Skills are essential for technical roles – Engineers, surgeons, and data analysts need strong foundational skills to perform their job effectively.
🔹 Skills ensure productivity from day one – An employee with relevant experience may onboard faster.
🔹 However, skills without the right mindset lead to poor cultural fit and disengagement.
How to Strike the Right Balance in Hiring
Set a baseline for required skills – Ensure candidates meet the necessary qualifications but don’t over-prioritise them.
Assess personality fit – Use profiling tools like Tema to understand how a candidate's traits align with company culture and role requirements.
Prioritise soft skills – Emotional intelligence, adaptability, and problem-solving are key to long-term success.
Look at long-term potential – A candidate with growth potential will outperform a highly skilled but disengaged employee.
Final Thoughts
The most successful companies don’t just hire for today—they hire for the future. While skills are important, it is attitude and personality that determine whether an employee thrives, engages, and drives business success.
🚀 Ready to hire smarter? Use Tema to assess candidates beyond their CV, ensuring you build high-performing, engaged teams.
👉 Download Tema now or talk to us today!