In the recent past few of my clients had to let go of some employees.
The main reason: Their Attitude
My clients spent considerable about of time and money in the selection process. However most of the assessment process was based on testing the candidates skills and experience and hardly any on their attitude.
So why did they hire for skills and fire for attitude?
- It is easy to measure skills and experience
- It is assumed that a candidate with the right skills and experience will have the right attitude
- Lack of clarity on what attitude is required
- The problem with ‘measuring’ attitude.
What is attitude?
For our purposes we can define attitude as “A consistent way of thinking or feeling, typically reflected in a person’s behavior”.
Decide what attitude you are looking for:
So before measuring potential candidate’s attitude (consistent behaviour) – it is important to decide what attitudes are required for that job role.
For an example a customer service role may require ‘going the extra mile’ attitude, but a sales role may require a positive ‘never give up and keep going until you get your desired results’ attitude.
But…How do you measure attitude?
It is not easy, but possible to some extent.Getting to understand a potential candidates real attitude – consistent behaviour – in an interview situation is a challenge.Don’t think in term of ‘measuring’ attitude, instead think in terms of ‘getting under the bonnet’ of the candidate and get some clue’s from their past experiences.
Questions such as:
- “Tell me about a time, when you did not hit your sales targets and how you handled it?
- “Tell me about a time, when you did all you could and the customer was still not happy..and how you handles it?
Don’t stop at the first response. Dig deeper with more questions.
- can you elaborate on that?
- why did you do it that way?
- Could you give me an example please?
You can design simple tests:
For an example the candidate can be asked to do a small project outside the interview.
Examples:
You may want them to do a simple competitor surveys
You may want them to do some simple research on a topic related to their job role
This will also help towards ‘getting under the bonnet and obtaining some clues about their attitude.
Can Personality and Psychometric tests help?
I am not so sure. They aim to reveal certain personalities and character traits. But I am not certain whether they are designed to reveal ‘attitude’. (If you are an expert in this area and disagree please feel free add to this discussion)
Bottom line….
Don’t assume that your potential employees( just because they seem to have the right skills and experience) are blessed with the right attitude for the job. Design your interview process to take this in to consideration.
+ Ravi Peal-Shankar
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