Is Attitude over Aptitude a Viable Employment Practice

The HR landscape is always changing; the approach of hiring staff with the right attitude is quickly becoming a growing trend.
This is a theory that is endorsed by Jonathan Levy, Attorney and President of Fair Measures, a management training firm: "Why do we often hire the wrong people? We don´t get the right information in the interview. We find out about their abilities, their aptitude, but not about their attitude. As a result, they may be able to adequately go through the motions of their jobs. But that´s all they do - go through the motions. They don´t have their hearts in it."
And this theory of hiring for attitude over aptitude isn’t just a fad sweeping across the HR landscape. David Fairhurst, Chief People Officer of McDonald's Restaurants Northern Europe, was voted HR magazine's most influential practitioner for the third year in a row in 2010 and maintains that attitude, not aptitude is the best practice to improve a company’s bottom line.
In an exclusive interview with MeetTheBoss.tv in June, Fairhurst outlined how trends of hiring for intangibles like teamwork, dependability, flexibility, leadership and attitude are more important than hiring for aptitude alone.
"I think the best advice is to rip up job descriptions. I'll probably get struck off my profession for saying that, but the reality is people who have the [wrong] attitude will work against progress, so to me the first thing you do is no different to that that I do in a store level around the country at McDonald's, and that is to hire for attitude. Forget the qualifications, even forget some of the experience; look at the attitude.
"So for me it's about building a team for the attitude. Hire the people who want to progress," he told MeetTheBoss.tv.
The NG Human Resources Summit, at the Boulders Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, (hosted by GDS International) is designed specifically to enable Chief HR Officers to engage and interact as they meet demands of transformation and prepare for the impact their role will have on the overall success of an organization's sustainability and bottom line. CHROs, EVPs and SVPs of HR, and other top human resource executives will be present to explore critical issues essential to organizational effectiveness and relevant employment in order to compete on a global scale.
Those in attendance will be...

The NG HR Summit will bring together CHROs who are currently investing in innovative solutions, like employing for attitude over aptitude, and other pivotal HR issues that will positively impact their bottom line.
Like David Fairhurst, CHROs will only respond and commit to those solution providers who can link tangible cost benefits with the solutions they provide. The HR Summit will provide this vital means of communication and provide and ideal framework for new business relationships to flourish.

Organizing the Chaos in HR

Recent reports show that unemployment within the United States has improved very little over the last quarter. Figures show that unemployment is hovering around 14.9 million, which equates to an unemployment rate of just under 10 percent. The large number is indicative of the current global economic climate which has shrunk working opportunities and left 1 in ten of the working population out of work.

A common fault by many companies is to organize change when implementing a new strategy even though today’s volatile economy leaves little room for error. The NG HR committee feels there are clear reasons for these struggles; for most companies a change in management means altering organizational structures and processes. They rarely ask staff about how willing they are to make changes, which, the majority of the time, they are not.

“[CEOs and managers] must realize that by nature people are wary of change. They must be careful about making difficult decisions and pace the changes. When implementing a new structure there is a need for a gradual process to shape the system.”

John McGuire – Center for Creative Leadership, who is currently in attendance at the NG HR US Summit, spoke on ‘transforming your leadership culture’. He believes that too many changes with management initiatives can prove detrimental to morale.
“Our work with clients around the world has shown that there is a hierarchy of organizational cultures. Each advancing culture is more capable of dealing with the kind of complexity and ambiguity that typify our world today. But if an organization's current leaders have not developed the right beliefs and practices - in other words, the right culture - to work across divisional boundaries, they'll rarely change successfully. When they get it right, however, every dollar invested in leadership development yields results and organizational impact that far exceeds expectations,” He said.

John was also joined by Hard Rock International - Kim Creighton, VP HR, Madison Square Garden - Dwight Tierney, SVP HR and Administration, Time Warner Inc – Maggie Ruby Lynch, SVP Worldwide Recruitment and Virgin Atlantic Airways LTD, Frances Fiorillo, SVP People. Although talks are still in progress at the NG HR US summit it seems that all are in agreement although change is on the horizon it will be managing it that proves who will be successful and who will be creating organized chaos.

DreamWorks; How to Train a Corporate Dragon

Dan Satterthwaite – Head of HR for DreamWorks speaks out for MeettheBoss.TV on his training techniques

DreamWorks Pictures spun off DreamWorks Animation as a public company in 2004. And while the company name responsible for big hits like Shrek, Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar carries weight with audiences, continuing to produce such unique family entertainment is always a challenge and that’s where Dan Satterhwaite comes in.
Dan is currently working as Head of HR for DreamWorks and is responsible for developing and supporting the creative talent of their newest 3-D movie,How to Train Your Dragon, which hits theatres March 26. In yet another exclusive interview for www.meettheboss.tv Dan speaks up about his challenges and how he overcomes them to keep a creative team motivated.
“It takes three to three and a half years to produce one of our films, and most of our artists
spend anywhere from 18 months to 2 years within their particular
department working on a project.” Dan continues “How do you keep them constantly
inspired?”

During the interview for MeetTheBoss.TV, Dan continues to share his motivational techniques, from Educational days out, to team shuffling but maintains a firm opinion that real-time communication is the Key, spending on latest communication tools to ensure that each department is fully aware of the ‘bigger picture’.

“Using innovation and technology to make sure that we can really carry forward the collaborative environment is what ends up making our stories and our films so unique and special”

DreamWorks is not like an average company, but has been met with same challenges as everyone else during the Global downturn. Dan’s responsibility was to keep the workforce settled during this difficult time with a mindset to be as creative as possible and believes that lessons could be learnt from his example in other hard industries.

“Virtually every other major company in the state and even across the entire country was doing mass layoffs, or at least had the threat of people losing jobs, and we wanted to make sure that our people knew that if that time ever came at DreamWorks it would be the absolute last resort”

“It was a commitment that we made, because keeping people focused on creative work and keeping people focused on innovation, inherently requires them to take risks. In an
environment where people are fearful they will not taking risks, and we just cannot afford to let the creativity or innovation that drives this entire company in any way be affected by
the uncertainty and fear that the outside world has created over the last 18 months.”

To watch the video in full Log on to www.MeetTheBoss.tv