How to Hire People with Resilience

The business landscape is shifting. Economic pressures are growing, technology is evolving, organisations are faced with new demands and employees are experiencing more challenging situations than ever before. As the working environment becomes increasingly complex, many employers are realising that resilient employees are the key to business sustainability and success, and consequently this trait is becoming a key focus in the IT recruitment process. But why exactly is resilience so vital in today’s world of work, and how do you hire people with resilience for your Tech team?

The Benefits of Resilient Employees

Resilient individuals are better at managing difficult circumstances and are less likely to be intimidated by challenges – qualities that are highly valuable not just in business, but in life. Far from being a “nice to have” personality trait, employees’ resilience can have a measurable impact on many areas of an organisation. According to a study by meQuilibrium, resilient employees are 46% less stressed than those with low resilience, have significantly lower levels of burnout, lower absenteeism, and are half as likely to resign from their jobs in the immediate future.

In addition to these more quantifiable benefits, resilient employees are also more likely to:

• Be motivated and engaged in their work
• Come up with creative solutions to problems
• Embrace risk and focus on action
• Bounce back quickly from failure
• Take responsibility rather than pass blame
• Maintain a positive attitude in the face of challenges

Steps to Recruit Strong Employees

While resilience is clearly beneficial within an organisation, it can be hard to pin down, and some roles (i.e. senior management and leadership roles) require more resilience than others. However, focusing on this quality within key stages of the hiring process (and beyond) will allow you to identify the right people.

The following steps will help you determine how to recruit resilient employees that will carry your organisation through every challenge and hurdle.

How to Hire Resilient Employees

1. Understand how to identify resilience in a CV

While the CV is usually the first point of contact when screening a candidate, on its own it isn’t particularly useful for assessing resilience, so it’s important to keep the resume in perspective and not place too much emphasis on it as far as resilience is concerned.

That being said, there are some aspects of a candidate’s CV that can provide an indication of their resilience levels. For example, a candidate who has had a long tenure at an organisation and been promoted several times is likely to have been resilient to any issues within that business, as opposed to a candidate who has job hopped frequently when challenges arise. Obviously, this is an assumption and only tells part of the story, so it always pays to investigate factors such as tenure further in the interview.

2. Ask interview questions to assess it in candidates

One of the most effective ways to assess resilience in a job interview is to ask the candidate to describe past scenarios in which they have demonstrated this trait. The key is to focus not on outcomes, but on the way the candidate handled the experience. Ask questions that will help uncover their response to a difficult situation and what they learned from it.

While past resilience can’t guarantee how someone will respond to challenges in the future, the way the candidate responds to these questions will give you an idea of their propensities. You can also learn more about a candidate’s resilience at the reference check stage by asking the referees to explain how the individual has handled difficulties previously.

3. Build a resilient IT team

While hiring resilient employees is an important first step, to truly benefit from a resilient team, you need to continuously develop this trait in team members as well as create an environment that promotes it. Challenges will always be present in the workplace, so rather than trying to eliminate these pressures, focus on empowering people to cope with them by building a structure in which resilience is a core value and a goal to constantly strive for.

Effective ways to foster resilience within your team include:

• Providing ongoing support and training to help people deal with challenging situations (e.g. mentorship, peer support, wellness programs or formal resilience training)
• Enabling employees to take accountability for their work and have a measurable impact on outcomes
• Modelling a healthy attitude towards failure, presenting it as an opportunity for growth
• Recognising examples of resilience that are demonstrated by employees
• Establishing an open, supportive culture that encourages team members to collectively discuss challenges and share potential solutions

Keep in mind that while you can create the right environment and teach people skills and techniques, true resilience usually only comes when it is put into practice. When challenges arise, be ready to reinforce the foundations that are already in place and provide ongoing support to team members as they learn to navigate the situation.

Start Hiring Resilient Tech Professionals Today

While resilience can be a difficult skill to identify and promote, it is well worth the effort to do so. Hiring people with this quality and empowering employees to continue building their resilience will ultimately result in a more present, engaged and effective team, better enabling the organisation to innovate and withstand the challenges that come its way.

To find out how we can help you hire skilled and resilient Tech talent for your business in Auckland or Christchurch, get in touch with our team of IT recruitment specialists today.