Decent hiring tips come in handy when you consider nearly one in every two people hired fail within 18 months.
That’s a startling statistic, especially for small businesses and startups. These volatile businesses can literally double their workforce with each new hire. Every added person has a tremendous impact on the business.
This statistic makes us wonder why so many passionate business owners and entrepreneurs trust hiring to rushed efforts and gut feelings? What’s even more interesting than a 46 percent failure rate, is that the cause is overwhelmingly because or attitude, not skill.
Why are the people at the top of businesses so bad at hiring the right people?
1. Skills don’t equal success
Skill can be measured.
Tell someone to build something, and then you can see if that person builds it. Ask someone if they know how to do something, you can ask them to educate you on what they actually know.
Yes, skills have degrees and track records.
2. Attitude is far less tangible
Few, if any, indicators will show you an applicant’s desire to produce good work, learn new skills, and deal with obstacles.
How beneficial is an über-talented software engineer if he or she can’t work with any kind of deadlines? You can’t force people to apply themselves.
3. Personality remains, skills can change
People will remain essentially the same throughout their careers (and even lives in most cases). Introverts remain introverted and extroverts stay their same way.
Don’t make the mistake of hiring the perfect skill set, believing that you can change the new employee’s personality or work style to match your business.
You can teach proactive and eager employees new processes and skills. They need to want it, though.
Think about how much business and technology has changed over the last few years … 10 years … and more. If you want someone to stick around, learn new technologies and contribute, you’ll need someone passionate about doing so.
This article originally appeared on The Resumator Blog.