“Fake it till you make it” : En kvalitativ studie om hur rekryterare bedömer personligheter och hanterar utmaningar vid chefsrekrytering

In order to be hired, an applicant is expected to possess and live up to a variety of requirements. Though competences such as previous work experience and levels of studies are easily presented and measurable, this presumably may not be the case of more inexplicit information such as people's personalities and attitudes. The purpose of this study is to understand how recruiters value and determine personalities of candidates applying for executive positions. Furthermore it seeks to examine how recruiters handle potential challenges with trying to determine these personalities. Addressing these questions, we integrate semi-structured interviews with recruiters and an analysis of 100 job advertisements for executive positions. The interviews were performed with 6 highly qualified recruiters possessing substantial experience in recruitment regarding executive positions. Found was that recruiters do not seek to determine personalities, but rather personality traits relevant to the job position in question. These personality traits were something that recruiters argued being taken highly in to consideration when determining who to hire. In order to determine these traits, recruiters proposed several methods. Usually, a personality test filled by the applicant set the tone for the rest of the recruitment process. The recruiters alleged that the result of the test formed behaviour related questions during the job-interview regarding the personality traits of interest. Another method used, which had a clash of believed validity, was the estimation of applicants personality traits by looking at their behaviour during the actual interview. The challenges with trying to determine these personality traits proved to be 1) Misunderstandings between applicants and recruiters 2) Differences in applicants love of ease and skill regarding the job interview as a format 3) Candidates telling outright lies. In order to avoid misunderstandings recruiters asked candidates to give examples from real life experiences. To handle the risk of candidates being skillful in doing interviews a trial of employment was used so that the recruiter had a chance to evaluate the candidate in its executive position. The risk of applicants telling lies was resolved by either a) Trying to explain as little as possible regarding the job, so that the applicant would not be able to form their answers b) By asking follow up questions regarding the personality traits of interest without revealing what was looked for