[ Attitude / Ability ]

It’s common to hear the statement “hire attitude, we can teach them ability”.  Or, ‘check capabilities, we can sort out competence’. Good mannerisms mean good employee.

That’s mostly true. But if your strategy is “attitude over ability”, I’d expect to see a corresponding solid, unwavering onboarding and induction procedure alongside. 

Hiring someone who behaves well, but who is not supported in developing their ability, is poor business.   A ‘hire behaviour’ policy requires a solid, unwavering training budget that is never questioned.

Hiring for attitudes and behaviour make sense, but don’t assume that means they’ll just do the work as expected.