04 Apr Why You Should Consider Hiring For Attributes And Not Only Professional Skills In Resume

For so long, the recruiters have focussed only on professional skills for resumes when hiring freshers and professionals. Whether it is to hire the right people for an organisation or climb up the proverbial corporate ladder, it has always been about skills. If the last two years have taught us one thing, it is that performance does not rely solely on skills. For instance, some people were quick to adapt to the overnight retreating of the world from offices to homes. Some struggled and found the uncertain and stressful environment distressing.

When experts went back to the board with this question, they found that attributes form the other pillar upon which performance depends a good deal. Several organisations have been using psychometric evaluations to identify if an individual’s characteristics or attributes match the environment of their organisation. It goes beyond scanning the resumes for freshers and professionals.

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If you are a startup or a company that has thus far relied only on professional skills in resumes while hiring, here is why you may want to think about attributes as well.

• They determine the performance under stressful situations

Every organisation has periods when the stress runs high, and the pressure mounts to deliver. In such situations, it is the attributes that make a person shine. If you were to look back and name an incident when you performed well, you would most likely think of a time when you were fighting against the odds. Similarly, we say an athlete was outstanding on the field when she was achieving a high target.

Why do we think this way? It is because not everyone is not equally equipped to apply the same skills in difficult situations. In fact, performance in high-stress environments depends upon attributes like patience, perseverance, adaptability and open-mindedness to get through.

• Potential is defined by attributes and not skills

Several organisations facilitate cross-functional internal movements and encourage employees to seek roles in other departments. They believe that a person’s performance depends highly on potential and not just professional skills on a resume. Potential always lies in the future and does not depend on what one currently has. This philosophy can help you immensely in identifying the leaders of tomorrow. Think about the common traits for leaders to be successful in your organisation. Most of you will have people management as one of the vital attributes. 

Nobody can designate themselves as the leader and ask people to follow. For teams to genuinely believe in the leader and follow the path charted by them, there should be some motivation. Attributes like empathy, selflessness, authenticity, decisiveness, and accountability provide this encouragement and belief in the leadership quality of the person.

• Skills can be learned, but developing attributes is tough

You can join a course and work on projects to acquire new skills to enhance the professional skills on your resume. It may be hard, given your schedule and responsibilities, but it is not impossible. However, developing attributes is a tough job. You cannot learn a new attribute like a skill.

It will require you to put yourself in difficult situations intentionally. For instance, how do you become more patient or become more adaptable? You will have to step out of your comfort zone and drive in heavy traffic or stand in a long queue.  The bottom line here is to hire people with the right attributes. You can always teach them the skills later. So the next time, you come across a resume for freshers or professionals, try to decipher the attributes the person brings to the table. Give them priority over the professional skills in a resume.

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