hire on positivity

[pcpete]

We are getting ready to hire someone after recently firing someone. We want to do better on this process. There have been big studies that show hiring on whether a person is a more positive than negative person correlates directly with future productivity even when not factoring in actual skills for the job.

If you ask someone if they are half full or half empty kind of people, they will always say half full. We need some questions or even a test (maybe I should google it, as it is probably out there) which indicates a persons natural inclination for optimism. Any suggestions on specific questions or other ways to determine this?

 

[JoeTech]

From my experiences and what I have read is that there are a few different ways to tell a person’s level of optimism.

You can ask them what they are grateful for in life. Positive people won’t take long to answer but negative people probably never think about that much so will have a harder time answering it.

Also ask them what mistakes they made at their old job and what they did about them. Positive people usually learn from them and negative people tend to play the victim.

Last little thing is when people are describing job responsibilities positive people tend to say “I got to do this” and negative people tend to say “I had to do this”

This doesn’t necessarily mean they will be a better employee though but they probably will be easier to get along with.

 

[pcpete]

@JoeTech Those are great things to ask!!! Thanks

 

[pcpete]

This doesn’t necessarily mean they will be a better employee though but they probably will be easier to get along with.

The study I was referencing would say more likely. This large company hired a group of people soley based on their score on optimism and another group based on what they knew specifically about the job, the criteria they always hired people on in the past. After one year the group hired on optimism were doing 10% better, but after 4 years they were doing a full 40% better. I am recalling this from memory, so it may be off a bit

 

[JoeTech]

It would be interesting to see what job they were hiring for and what they considered the required score for optimism. I like positive people but there are also people who are annoyingly too positive as well.

The things I mentioned were basic guidelines but I don’t think I would hire someone based only on those things. I’m sure their test was a lot more scientific to rule out a lot of exceptions.

 

[pcpete]

It would be interesting to see what job they were hiring for and what they considered the required score for optimism. I like positive people but there are also people who are annoyingly too positive as well.

The things I mentioned were basic guidelines but I don’t think I would hire someone based only on those things. I’m sure their test was a lot more scientific to rule out a lot of exceptions.

We are maybe trying to weed out negative people as much as trying to hire positive ones

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

We fired our first person this past spring, never fired anyone in the near 20 years we've been doing this. Gave the person multiple changes, but their negative attitude couldn't be corrected. Had clients complain about the person.

In the past, we always focused on "accounting skills" when interviewing for our office manager position. This time around we went for customer service/retail experience first. The office managers position answers the phones, takes the calls from clients, calls the clients, emails with them, they're the face of our business. As for the accounting part..it's all just numbers..in and out, anyone can learn that. The person we hired has been the best ever in that position. A very happy person, you can hear her smile and laugh on the other end of the phone. We've had soooo much positive feedback from our clients since we hired her, they love her.

 

[pcpete]

We fired our first person this past spring, never fired anyone in the near 20 years we've been doing this. Gave the person multiple changes, but their negative attitude couldn't be corrected. Had clients complain about the person.

In the past, we always focused on "accounting skills" when interviewing for our office manager position. This time around we went for customer service/retail experience first. The office managers position answers the phones, takes the calls from clients, calls the clients, emails with them, they're the face of our business. As for the accounting part..it's all just numbers..in and out, anyone can learn that. The person we hired has been the best ever in that position. A very happy person, you can hear her smile and laugh on the other end of the phone. We've had soooo much positive feedback from our clients since we hired her, they love her.

exactly, we just fired our first person, a large part of it is the negative attitude. It hobbles everything a person does. It can't be trained by us

 

[JoeTech]

We are maybe trying to weed out negative people as much as trying to hire positive ones

Also forgot to add after asking about mistakes ask about their biggest success. If it was a big team project positive people share the credit while negative or arrogant people tend to take all the credit and probably won't be a team player.

I also agree that if a person has a negative attitude they are less likely to be productive and more likely to be wasting time in office politics and complaining.There is nothing you can do about that if they don't want to change.

 

[MDD1963]

I'm not always the most positive...

But I can damn darn well hide it/stifle it, and understand that no one else wants to hear anyone else's constant complaining/grumbles!