The Strategic Role of Personality in the Era of Skills-Based Hiring

Baltas Group

Today, skills-based hiring is emerging as a new trend in recruitment assessment. Fed by a process in which job suitability and performance are based on measurable, objective and repeatable criteria, this concept aims to go beyond candidates’ credentials and match them with roles according to their skills, offering higher productivity, greater job satisfaction, lower employee turnover and clearer career development paths.¹ Accordingly, for work to be successful, behavioural skills need to be measured systematically alongside technical skills.

What are behavioural skills?

Before answering this question, it is important to set out the basic differences between skills-based and traditional approaches to hiring. In traditional processes, diplomas, educational background and assessments from face-to-face interviews are usually decisive in hiring decisions. In skills-based hiring, these indicators are not excluded; however, different assessment methods, including face-to-face interviews, are redesigned to reveal the technical and non-technical skills that will enable the candidate to do the job successfully. Alongside concrete skills, abilities such as problem-solving, interpersonal communication and leadership are prioritised in the assessment stage. For example, in a traditional hiring process a diploma in finance is accepted as a strong reference for a candidate’s suitability; in a skills-based approach, this diploma alone is not considered sufficient, and indicators of technical skills that predict performance in practice, such as working with data, come to the fore alongside non-technical skills such as problem-solving, teamwork and coping with stress.

From this perspective, behavioural skills are a set of non-technical, observable skills that show how a person reacts to situations in the work environment and how they manage their interactions. Behavioural indicators related to a person’s contribution to organisational goals become important: being able to express oneself simply and clearly, collaborating effectively in teamwork, approaching problems analytically, staying calm in moments of crisis, adapting to change with agility and giving and receiving feedback effectively.

What is the role of personality in skills-based hiring?

Understanding where skills and personality intersect helps to answer this question. In predicting real-life success, David C. McClelland considered it important to measure clusters of competencies that apply across many dimensions of life, including work, social interaction and leadership, such as communication skills, patience and setting realistic goals.² In today’s terminology, these characteristics can be described as non-technical or behavioural skills. McClelland notes that these characteristics have traditionally been called “personality variables”, but here he treats personality not as a fixed, abstract label but as the most valid and dynamic cluster of competencies for predicting success in life. Murray Barrick and Michael Mount (1991) argue that personality provides the behavioural architecture of how a person does their job, and that this architecture determines the final performance outcome.³ As a result, since non-technical skills are areas where personality traits are reflected more visibly in behaviour, their relationship with personality is easier to observe.

To see the relationship between personality and performance on the basis of behavioural skills more clearly, let us take an example comparing two software developers, A and B, who have the same technical skills. Suppose the company gives them a six-week project. Person A makes a daily plan, breaks the task into small pieces and reorganises priorities when necessary. Person B starts writing code straight away but does not plan systematically and struggles to prioritise as the deadline approaches. Person A appears to have a higher profile in terms of self-regulation, which includes planning. Person B, despite having similar technical skills, shows a lower tendency in this trait. This shows that technical skills alone may not be enough to explain job performance.

To see the importance of personality in hiring even more clearly, let us take another example, again comparing two candidates, A and B. Suppose the company invites two candidates for an interview for the sales department. Person A is ambitious, highly self-confident and socially at ease, enjoys taking part in events, can connect with everyone, is cheerful and has a strong ability to initiate and manage relationships. Person B is overly cautious, does not enjoy being curious or researching, avoids conflict and tends to be overly accommodating. When the personality traits of these two candidates are examined, it is clear that Person A has the competitiveness, communication and persuasiveness required for a sales position. Even though they have the same diploma, their performance in the sales department will differ because of their different personalities. Person B will struggle to build relationships, fall short in market research and therefore show low job performance. This example shows that personality plays a critical role in the process by which skills turn into job performance, and how important personality analysis is in hiring.

Which skills do organisations want in candidates?

According to the analyses of the “Future of Jobs Report”, analytical thinking, flexibility, technological literacy and creative thinking stand out among the skills most in demand by employers.⁴ According to the “Skills Outlook” report by Pearson, one of the world’s leading education companies, it is not only technical competencies but human skills that stand out in job postings. Looking ahead to 2026, the five most in-demand core skills are collaboration, customer focus, personal learning and mastery, achievement focus, and cultural and social intelligence.⁵

Mike Howells, Pearson’s president at the time, pointed out that although technical skills are important for many jobs, people will need to retrain frequently to keep pace with technology. He noted that employers now recognise human skills as the power skills that truly help people stay relevant and adaptable in a changing world, and that businesses need to act now to help employees develop their skills, while employees need to adopt a mindset of lifelong learning, because a strong foundation of human skills is essential for the success of both employers and employees, now and in the future.

Personality profiles under the spotlight: The Big Five framework

From the perspective of the Big Five or Five Factor Model, the relationship between personality and behavioural skills is multidimensional. For example, the collaboration skill that organisations look for is associated with the personality traits of agreeableness and extraversion. Customer focus, another skill, is associated with agreeableness and emotional stability. Personal learning and mastery is linked to conscientiousness and openness to experience. Achievement focus can be associated with conscientiousness and extraversion (because of its distinctive importance in job performance, it is addressed as a separate personality dimension in Personova). Finally, intercultural communication skills, which include cultural and social intelligence, are again associated mainly with agreeableness and openness to experience from the Big Five perspective.

Studies show that analytical thinking is still at the top of the other skills organisations seek. Within the framework of the Big Five or Five Factor Model, analytical thinking is most closely associated with openness to experience. Critical evaluation is related to openness to experience, conscientiousness and emotional stability. Leadership is associated with extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness, while adaptability and flexibility are associated with openness to experience, agreeableness and emotional stability.

Skills and competencies through the eyes of Personova

Such evaluations gain deeper meaning when considered together with Personova’s personality model, which is based on the Big Five but restructured specifically for working life. Personova reconstructs this structure into six core dimensions, broken down into sub-dimensions, to comprehensively explain its behavioural reflections in working life. This approach shows more clearly how personality traits relate not only at a theoretical level but to the behavioural skills observed in the work environment.

At the same time, the Personova Personality Inventory addresses 21st-century competencies that are critical in today’s business world, such as emotional agility, secure attachment, humility, delay of gratification and self-regulation, within a personality-based framework, making visible which personality dynamics support these competencies. In this way, these competencies can be evaluated not only as observed behaviours but together with the underlying tendencies and their potential for sustainability. Personova therefore offers organisations a distinctive assessment framework by addressing the relationship between personality, skills and behavioural competencies through a model adapted to the business context.

Conclusion

Entrepreneur Marc Benioff has emphasised that winning the right talent is the most important key to growth and that recruiting has always been, and still is, the most important thing a company does. This view highlights the critical role of recruitment strategies in the business world.

Research in today’s business world shows that human skills are becoming increasingly important in skills-based hiring processes. Organisations are now looking for core skills related to social intelligence in candidates. Personality plays a leading role in the development of these skills.

Sources:

1. Dongre D, Kanchan P. The future of hiring: Impact of skill based hiring on professional development and lifelong learning.
2. McClelland DC. Testing for competence rather than for intelligence. American Psychologist. 1973;28(1):1–14. doi:10.1037/h0034092
3. Barrick MR, Mount MK. The Big Five personality dimensions and job performance: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology. 1991;44(1):1–26. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.1991.tb00688.x
4. World Economic Forum. The Future of Jobs Report 2023 [Internet]. Available from: https://www.weforum.org/reports/future-of-jobs-report-2023
5. Pearson. New Pearson study identifies human skills (‘power skills’) most in demand across the world [Internet]. Available from: https://plc.pearson.com/en-GB/news-and-insights/news/new-pearson-study-identifies-human-skills-power-skills-most-demand-worlds