In workplaces across the country, many workers are discussing the topic of “personality hires.”
Essentially, personality hires are employees hired for having the “it” factor. Typically, they’re charismatic with charming personalities, hired more for their magnetic personalities rather than their technical skills. They possess the ability to smooth over tough situations and build strong relationships with clients, customers and/or coworkers. Personality hires can also boost morale in the workplace, contribute to a positive work culture, and participate in company events.
Personality hires add positivity to a workplace, but they can create resentment, too. Here’s what it truly means to be a personality hire.
Personality hires are a company’s biggest cheerleaders
Consider this metaphor: it’s the bottom of the ninth inning. Personality hires are eagerly perched on the top step of the dugout cheering on their teammates at bat. As soon as a game-ending home run is smashed, they’re the first person greeting their teammate at home plate, high-fiving everyone—including the coaching staff.
Simply stated, personality hires are excellent at building relationships and boosting morale. They have clubhouse presence.
According to a recent poll by Monster, almost half of workers (48%) self-identify as a personality hire and nearly 4 in 10 (39%) of workers feel personality hires receive opportunities and recognition that they haven’t earned.
The drawbacks of personality hires
However, while it is important to have enthusiastic workers who improve morale, they should also be competent at the actual job they were hired to perform.
The sweet spot is to possess both soft and hard skills. If a personality hire is constantly on the bench cheering—and remains on the bench—that could become an issue. Hopefully, a personality hire has substantial foundational skills to learn, grow, and flourish. At some point, they too should be able to step up to home plate.
As a former corporate recruiter, I recommend that hiring managers focus on identifying candidates who are in alignment with their company culture, people, and values—and who also have the correct technical skills and relevant experiences. If candidates don’t have direct experience in the opportunity they’re pursuing, hopefully, they demonstrate transferable skills such as customer service, to toggle to the new role with a strong foundation.
With a can-do attitude and proven track record even in another career path, personality hires can be trained in technical skills. But hiring on personality alone, without proven skills and a track record to learn and succeed, may be problematic.
Conversely, hiring an employee only based on their technical skills while overlooking if they are the right cultural fit is not the best choice either. It is often more difficult to train someone to become a good cultural fit than to teach someone technical skills.
Finding the right balance
To be sure, there are some roles where having more soft or hard skill is more or less beneficial. A head of sales role, where the primary responsibility is to manage clients, may be more suited for personality hires than an accounting role. For this kind of position, where the primary responsibility is number crunching and tax preparation, a more traditional hire could be a better match. The key is to find the right balance of personality hires for each team.
Because unfortunately, a divide can develop between traditional hires and personality hires. Monster’s survey found that 42% of workers believe personality hires have more worth in the workplace and 58% of workers who say traditional hires are more valuable.
I have found that hiring teams who focus on personalities over core skills can overlook the strong skill sets and experiences of traditional hires.
In turn, excellent candidates who are introverts may also be the right fit for an organization. But because they might not be as overt about their enthusiasm, introverts may be overlooked in favor of more extroverted personality hires. Personality hires may get more attention, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other strong candidates.
While clubhouse presence is valuable to organizations, especially during dire times, to have morale boosters on the team, hiring managers should ensure they evaluate candidates for the skill sets they’re seeking while simultaneously seeking the right fit. Similarly, managers should evaluate their direct reports’ strengths and weaknesses, both soft and hard skills, to build upon them accordingly.
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