An Overlooked Hiring Criteria

It is not at all uncommon during the course of my work to survey a company’s employees. These surveys help me to gain critical information regarding the corporate culture, the employee’s view of the company, and the level of employee engagement.

Here is an observation that I am sure will stun no one: employees that complain about the company almost never have a negative view of their own performance or their own contribution to the problems they describe. For example, a majority of employees may report that they have a positive attitude and do their job well, but, at the same time, they believe that there are many problems in the company created by sub-par performance, poor attitudes, and inattention to detail. Everybody else is a problem – not me.

The reason this is important is because high performance has been closely linked with a person’s self-awareness – their ability to understand themselves according to reality, not who they want to be or how they would like to be perceived.

Many companies do themselves a disservice by not spending more time developing a comprehensive hiring strategy. Hiring is usually reactive, instinctive, and based primarily on job skills and a few core competencies. The costs associate with employee turnover, and the increasing challenges with employee engagement, are creating an environment where managers must be able to consistently hire and retain talent.

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