A lesson I’ve learnt over the years is that new skills can be taught to someone with the right attitude, but it’s almost impossible to change the attitude of someone who already has the right skills.

This belief is the guiding philosophy behind the “Hire for Attitude, Train For Skill” policy we follow at C2 Workshop. Even when faced with the most challenging recruitment deadlines, we stubbornly refuse to compromise on the “attitude” quotient of the candidates we hire.

The reason is fairly simple. At C2, we have strived hard to build and nurture a culture of honesty and transparency towards all our stakeholders (customers, vendors, and employees). For a new employee to feel part of the C2 family, they must first connect with the existing team at the “personality” level… their technical skills come next. Once the personalities align, the rest of the journey is smooth sailing… for the new employee as well as for the organization.

In rare instances when we’ve misread a candidate’s attitude during the interview process and hired them, we’ve found that they don’t last long with the organization. This is because the employee often finds the work culture completely alien to their basic character and finds it difficult to even survive in the organization, let alone perform or succeed. Interestingly, the employee’s technical competence seems to play no role in helping them overcome this “culture mismatch”.

On the other hand, hiring candidates whose attitudes are aligned with the organization’s helps us keep attrition levels much lower than prevailing industry standards. It also helps us maintain high team morale and spirit, which in turn positively impacts performance and productivity.