Donald Burns (YouTube video) advises hiring managers to prioritize personality over skill when recruiting (personality should weigh ~51%–80% of the decision). He recommends uncovering character through targeted interview questions and gives examples such as: “What’s a common misconception people have about you?”; “If you saw someone stealing, how would you handle it?”; and “How do you continue your learning?”
Step 3 Scout for personality over skill. You're hiring people for the wrong reasons. You need a line cook, and you have a bias to look at those resumes that have a lot of experience. Now, I'm not saying that experience isn't important. However, personality needs to be 51%, sometimes 80% of your hiring equation. So how do you uncover someone's personality? Ask better questions that dig into their character. Now, here are a few of my favorite ones. One might be what's a common misconception people have about you? Here's another one I really like. If you saw someone stealing something, either an employee or a guest, how would you handle that situation? How about, how do you continue your learning? I'm always looking for people that have this kind of desire to learn and become better.
If your restaurant only works because you work 80 hours a week, it doesn't work.
