Placing greater weight on character attributes and recruiting individuals with potential may not be so risky after all ...

Our colleagues at Ashfield Healthcare have published an excellent article challenging the value of competency based recruitment and selection.   Click here to download


Having recruited thousands of individuals into the Pharmaceutical Sector, Ashfield concur with the Harvard Business Review on 21st-Century Talent Spotting (June 2014) that the indicators of potential to look for are:

1. The right kind of motivation: a fierce commitment to excel in the pursuit of unselfish goals 
   
2. Curiosity: a penchant for seeking out new experiences, knowledge, candid feedback and an openness to learning and change
   
3. Insight: the ability to gather and make sense of information that suggests new possibilities 
   
4. Engagement: a knack for using emotion and logic to communicate a persuasive vision and connect with people 
   
5. Determination: the wherewithal to fight for difficult goals despite challenges and to bounce back from adversity. 
   

We agree with these findings which also reflect one of our Inspirational leaders (Sir Chay Blyth) philosophy of "selecting for character and training for competence" in round the world crews.

What's your experience of competence vs. character?