March 4, 2012 in Blog by Dawn Williams

Do you need to like the person you hire?

If you are in the recruitment or human resources field, it has happened to you at least once where you’ve interviewed a candidate and came away with a less than positive feeling. That feeling was more about the personality of the person rather than their skills. You just did not like them.

A couple of things to consider are whether this person will work for you or are you doing the interview on behalf of the hiring manager? Will this person interact with your customers? Is likability important in the role or will they work with computers and have very little to do with people. The answers to those questions will help you with your assessment.

You, of course, need to consider culture in the equation. If the company culture is strong on camaraderie, teamwork and fellowship, then perhaps you need to find a great personality in addition to the skills and experience.

If you are interviewing and are not the hiring manager, you must not let your bias influence your putting them through or not. Perhaps there’s a great fit with that hiring manager.

Things that should never be overlooked are things such as honesty and integrity. That aside, relationships work better when people like each other. You will be more receptive to someone’s ideas if you like them so go for personality and skills.

Most people that I have interviewed have been very nice people but occasionally I will meet someone obnoxious. I force myself to find at least one good thing about them. Once you find that one good thing, it’s amazing how they become more likable (they may not get the job but it makes it the process easier).