Personality Hire: Pros, Cons & 4 Critical Keys

Article originally published by HRMorning.com on September 24, 2024. Written by Michele McGovern.

Thinking of making a Personality Hire?

Or just wondering what all the hype is over the emerging trend of hiring someone who is meant to add some personality to the workplace?

While the Personality Hire has blown up on social media lately, it’s not exactly a new phenomenon. Organizations have hired people in outward facing roles — Sales and Customer Service come to mind immediately — forever.

But these days, more and more companies are making hires based mainly on personality — looking for people who stand out for being funny, charismatic, charming or just bringing good vibes to the workplace. Less important: their skills, education and experience.

Is a Personality Hire Sensible?

On the surface, it might seem like the perfect idea to add a fun personality to offices that bring people begrudgingly back on-site. You know the type — the first to organize happy hour, the one willing to make the phone call or show up on Zoom, the person who remembers Bernie ran a 5K over the weekend and sends the shoutout.

It’s the Norm Peterson of Cheers. The Andy Bernard of The Office. The Dani Rojasof Ted Lasso. The Neil Fak of The Bear.

But while the Personality Hire can create a more harmonious, fun workplace, it doesn’t come without challenges.

“While hiring solely based on personality is not a good idea, personality is something that should absolutely be considered when conducting hiring, as long as it’s done in the right way,” says Dr. Matthew Neale, VP of Assessment Productsat Criteria.

Let’s look at the pros, cons and critical factors if you want to make a Personality Hire.

Pros of Personality Hire

A Personality Hire isn’t just for fun and games. There are some business and morale advantages.

• Adaptability and learning potential. Personality Hires usually come with traits such as openness, eagerness and adaptability, which are helpful in employee development. So Personality Hires likely have learning and growth potential.
• Team building. Personality Hires are usually compatible people who excel at working well with others. They often have the tendency to reduce conflict and improve team dynamics. Because of this, they can usually integrate into existing teams and move around, if necessary.
• Culture champions. Personality Hires often dive into company culture. They want to be part of the cultural norms and values and foster a workplace where others do too.

“Recruiters should consider someone’s personality when hiring, but that isn’t the only element that needs to be looked at. It’s highly important that a holistic approach is taken into account,” says Neale. “Consider someone’s cognitive abilities, their potential and what kinds of skills they possess, as well as whether or not their personality is the ‘right fit’ for the role.”

Cons of Personality Hire

As you can imagine, there are some drawbacks of bringing a Norm, Dani or Neal on board.

• Widened skills gap. When hiring managers focus on personality alone, they tend to overlook essential skills for the job — and the candidate’s lack of them. That can lead to performance issues and missed goals.
• Bias. As experts at Pearl Recruitment put it, there’s a fine line between hiring for a cultural or personality fit and reinforcing biases. Recruiters will likely gravitate toward candidates who share similar backgrounds, viewpoints or personalities, which stifles workplace diversity and innovation.
• Productivity. If you’ve seen the memes or TikTok videos of Personality Hires, you’ll know that there’s a stigma attached to them: the office chatterbox who doesn’t get much done. True or not, productivity is at risk with Personality Hires — whether it’s their own or the those around them who might get distracted by all that personality.

Bottom line: Companies, HR pros and hiring managers want to take a balanced approach to hiring. If you decide to try a Personality Hire, you’ll want to:

• • Evaluate personality. Rather than hiring on personality alone, Neale recommends personality evaluations. “Personality evaluations can help to determine which candidates will excel in a given role and how they will fit in with other workers, which are highly important to the overall success of an employee and organization as a whole,” says Neale. “In addition to personality, employers should be evaluating a candidate’s potential, cognitive abilities, and current skillset to determine the best fit for each role.”
  • Lean in to structured interviews. Use both behavioral and situational questions so you can assess personality fit and competency. Even if you want a Personality Hire, you want to ensure candidates can handle basic duties.
  • Use diverse hiring panels. Get multiple interviewers from different backgrounds to curb the above-mentioned biases. It gives a more rounded view of the candidate — and gives the candidate a more rounded view of your organization.
  • Plan initial and continuous training and development. With a good chance there will be a skills gap with Personality Hires, work with managers to develop and follow through on a specific, goals-based training plan so they can adapt to their roles.