reinamelendrez13

Week 5: Post 2 of 2 – Recognizing and Appreciating People Who May Offer

When hiring employees for your company, it can be tempting to focus primarily on what someone already knows how to do. However, I think entrepreneurs also need to consider what skills can be taught after someone is hired and what personal qualities may be much harder to develop. Chapter 6 of How to Hire A-Players raises an important point about distinguishing between skills that can be taught and characteristics that are more difficult to change. For entrepreneurs, understanding this difference can help them make better decisions about hiring and building stronger teams.

For example, an employee may not know how to use a particular point-of-sale system, prepare a specific recipe, or follow a company’s procedures when they are first hired. With training, practice, and feedback, these skills can usually be developed. Research on employee training also shows that training and development can improve employee performance and provide organizations with benefits beyond the immediate skills being taught (Aguinis & Kraiger, 2009). This suggests that employers should not automatically overlook someone on their first day simply because they lack certain technical skills, and should adopt the mindset that such skills can be learned. On the other hand, some qualities are more difficult to teach. Characteristics such as reliability, motivation, willingness to accept feedback, adaptability, and how someone treats other people can be much harder to change through training. Barrick and Mount (1991) found that personality characteristics, particularly conscientiousness, were related to job performance across different occupational groups. This is important because an employee can potentially learn a new procedure. Still, it may be much more difficult to teach someone to consistently take responsibility for their work or genuinely care about doing a good job.

This distinction is important when hiring employees for the bakery I want to open in the future. I could teach someone how to make certain drinks, operate the register, follow food-safety procedures, or prepare products according to recipes. However, I would want to pay close attention to qualities such as friendliness, work ethic, and willingness to learn during the hiring process.

I believe entrepreneurs should look beyond a candidate’s current skill set when making hiring decisions. A strong employee does not have to know everything when they are first hired. If they have the right attitude, work ethic, and ability to learn, then their technical skills can often be developed over time. The challenge for entrepreneurs is recognizing which gaps can be addressed through training and which characteristics are important enough to be present when hiring.

References

Aguinis, H., & Kraiger, K. (2009). Benefits of training and development for individuals and teams, organizations, and society. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 451–474. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163505

Barrick, M. R., & Mount, M. K. (1991). The Big Five personality dimensions and job performance: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 44(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1991.tb00688.x

Wasserman, N. (2012). The founder’s dilemmas: Anticipating and avoiding the pitfalls that can sink a startup. Princeton University Press.

Responses

  1. Danielle Gualtieri Avatar
    Danielle Gualtieri

    I liked your distinction between skills that can be taught and qualities that are much harder to develop. I appreciate that you imply they can be taught, just perhaps with much more effort and time. I also found myself struggling to think of skills that are completely unteachable.

    Your bakery example made the concept easy to picture, but also made me wonder how much responsibility the employer has for developing those traits versus expecting them to already be there. In my SME interview, the owner emphasized that growing the team is just as important as growing the business. Entry-level jobs, maybe like those in a bakery, create opportunities to teach people what is actually valuable in the workplace.

    For example, if you hire a 17-year-old who knows they make the best latte in town, part of a manager’s job may be helping that employee recognize the value of customer service, accountability, and food-safety practices.

    That raises an interesting question for me: How fair is it to evaluate candidates for traits or workplace skills that they may not even know employers are looking for? If someone is coming in determined to show off their coffee making skills – maybe it is the managers job to tell them that, while of course coffee making is important, the skills that are most important are X & Y – even if they are soft, hard-to-define skills.

    Like

    Reply
    1. reinamelendrez13 Avatar
      reinamelendrez13

      Hi Danielle,

      I agree with your point about balancing what employers should expect from new hires with what they should be willing to teach. It can be difficult to evaluate someone’s workplace traits fairly, as they may not yet have had the opportunity to develop, especially in entry-level roles. The example you give in your comment of the 17-year-old who is focused on their latte-making skills explains this very well. They may naturally highlight the abilities they know and take pride in, without realizing that employers also look for qualities such as teamwork and customer service.

      I also like how you connected employee development from the original post. While some traits may be harder to develop than technical skills, managers play a critical role in helping employees understand what behaviors and attitudes contribute to success in the workplace. Rather than expecting candidates to arrive with every desired skill, employers can look for potential and a willingness to learn, then provide coaching and guidance to help employees grow. I believe the most successful organizations hire for both ability and potential and create opportunities for continued development.

      Like

      Reply
  2. theresacandow Avatar
    theresacandow

    I really liked your example about hiring employees for your future bakery. I agree that it would be much easier to teach someone how to make a drink, use a register, or follow a recipe than it would be to teach someone to have a strong work ethic or genuinely care about how they treat customers. One thing your post made me think about is how difficult it can be to recognize those qualities during the hiring process. Someone can have a great resume and all of the technical qualifications you are looking for, but that does not necessarily tell you how reliable they will be or how they will interact with customers and coworkers.

    I think this is where entrepreneurs have to look beyond the traditional interview questions and find ways to learn more about the person they are hiring. Asking candidates about situations where they received criticism, dealt with a difficult customer, or had to learn something new could give you a better idea of their adaptability and willingness to learn. Especially in a bakery where employees would interact directly with customers, I think finding someone who is friendly, dependable, and willing to learn could ultimately be more valuable than finding someone who already knows every technical aspect of the job.

    Like

    Reply
    1. reinamelendrez13 Avatar
      reinamelendrez13

      Hi Theresa,

      Your point is that it can be difficult to identify qualities such as work ethic, reliability, and customer service during the hiring process. I agree that technical skills and qualifications on a resume do not always tell the full story about how someone will perform as an employee or interact with customers and coworkers. In my most recent SME interview, Susan, a small business owner, stated that there are cases where some people are not truthful during interviews. So she tends to keep all answers in mind so when situations do occur, the employee said how they would react, she sees if they keep their word, and if that is their character. This goes into my next takeaway: using situational questions in interviews is a great way to learn more about a candidate’s character and potential.

      I agree that asking applicants how they handled criticism, resolved a conflict, or adapted to a new situation can provide valuable insight into traits that may be harder to teach. Your comment reinforces the idea that hiring is not just about finding people who can do the job today, but also identifying those who have the attitude and adaptability to grow with the business over time.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a Reply