Survey Results: What Traits do Businesses Look for in New Hires?

COM17AEChartWork Ethic and Attitude Trump Experience and Education; Communication is a High Priority

Express Employment Professionals recently released new survey results revealing traits that are most important to businesses when hiring job candidates.

In a survey of 1,030 businesses, respondents were asked to “rate the following traits in order of importance when hiring a candidate with 1 being least important and 5 being most important.”

“Work ethic/integrity” topped the list, with an average rating of 4.60, followed closely by “attitude” at 4.57.

Communication” was the only other trait with an average rating greater than 4. “Culture fit,” “critical thinking” and “consistent work history” followed, with “job experience,” “education” and “references” rounding out the bottom three.

Check out the full results.

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“All of these traits matter; there’s no doubt about that,” said Bob Funk, CEO of Express. “Still, you can help someone build experience or knowledge, but you can’t teach integrity or attitude. That’s reflected in this survey, and it is why employers put such a premium on these traits. Communication and cultural fit are very similar in that regard as well. You just cannot afford to have someone on a team who’s going to harm others’ ability to get the job done.”

The survey of 1,030 businesses, which are current and former clients of Express Employment Professionals, was conducted in March 2017 to gauge respondents’ expectations for the second quarter of 2017. Previous surveys were conducted to cover job insights of the quarters indicated.

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