Hiring employees requires an effective recruiting and screening process that can cause stress and require much time and effort. Sometimes, you might want to hire the first candidate that makes a good impression to quickly get a position filled. Despite the expediency of such a decision, you could thereby deny your business of well-qualified, loyal and productive employees.
Extroverts often know how to make a good first impression by making small talk and bragging about their past accomplishments. Quiet and reserved prospects, on the other hand, often fail to make a good impression on the first interview. As a result, you might naturally tend toward hiring the former group of candidates while losing the advantages offered by the others.
Loudness, sociability, and bravado rarely have much to do with actual job performance, neither does introversion. Still, hiring practices tend to favor those that make the loudest and biggest impression. People who seem too shy to succeed often can possess the skills and character traits that your organization needs.
Spend some time reviewing the factors that influence your hiring decisions and then learn from the following reasons why you never should overlook quiet candidates. By choosing the right balance of personality types to comprise your staff, you can make your company stronger and agiler than you ever thought possible.
Thorough Researchers
Introverts often communicate poorly during job interviews because they lack sufficient time to collect and articulate their thoughts. As a result, good candidates can seem incoherent and unintelligent and get passed over for consideration by many firms. You should avoid that trap.
Although you might have a negative first impression of a candidate, keep an open mind. Quiet candidates that performed poorly during an interview often outperform their extroverted peers on the job. Merely having the ability to consider situations from multiple perspectives can make an introvert a vital resource.
Level the playing field for your hiring process by sharing in advance the questions that you will ask. Doing so gives introverts sufficient time to prepare their answers and thereby demonstrate the intelligence and competence that they can bring to your team.
The Quiet Strength Behind the Team
Corinne Bendersky published a study that showed that most people initially choose to work together with extroverts for their charisma and energy. On the other hand, introverted people seem timid and sometimes even rude at first. They often avoid chitchat and stay away from the water cooler.
Time, however, increases their acclimation and engagement: introverts take a while to adapt to a new environment. When that happens, someone who you thought would always be a loner might become the cornerstone of your organization. Bendersky’s study demonstrated that, over time, employees increasingly appreciate their introverted colleagues because of their dedication and contribution to the team.
Shy employees can have a proclivity to plan and prepare and then share their knowledge and capabilities with their team. Although they might never take credit for their vital role in projects, their work often lays the foundation for success.
Employers should take introverts into consideration for purely selfish reasons, too. Even though work-related stress is usually perceived as an employee problem, the managers aren’t spared either. One of the primary causes of stress at work for managers are employees who don’t follow instructions and don’t finish projects on time. With introverts, you can be sure that all your expectations will be met. They are motivated by their desire to please everyone and not to disappoint their superiors and teammates.
Loyal Workers
Employee retention affects the profitability of your firm as well as its long-term competitiveness. You can reduce turnover and thereby contain your recruiting and training expenses by hiring quiet job applicants.
Introverts tend to resist change, so they naturally like to stay at the same job for as long as possible. These workers also tend to be personally invested in their work and have a genuine desire to see their employer succeed. Such a high level of commitment also contributes to the performance and stability of teams.
When you choose to hire a quiet candidate, remember to treat them well. An introvert who feels ignored and unappreciated will eventually become dissatisfied and look for work elsewhere. Such a loss can cost your company a lot because of the knowledge and experience introverts take with them when they leave.
In Conclusion
A veil of shyness often prevents employers from perceiving the beneficial talents, skills and other abilities that introverts have to offer. As a result, the majority of new hires are extroverts who tend to be more independent and less loyal and compliant. Additionally, some extroverts have trouble with teamwork.
Introverts might not be as gregarious as their bubbly and boisterous counterparts, but they can be more tenacious regarding tasks and collaborative while working as part of a team. Additionally, the loyalty and personal investment in high-quality work make introverts a vital part of any effort to reduce employee turnover.
Hiring your quietest applicants might not make sense for every position and, of course, might not always result in performance improvements. Try to achieve a healthy balance of introverts and extroverts to build a highly functional team that leverages the benefits offered by both personality types.
Author Bio:
Michelle Laurey is a freelance writer who enjoys fitness, relaxing in the fresh air, trying to live a healthy life and daydreaming about visiting new places (and actually visiting them). Her best ideas and problem solutions appear while she’s riding her bicycle. You can reach her via Twitter.
