Employers want these personal attributes in staff
What is Personal Attributes?
Personal attributes are the traits you naturally have that make you unique and can determine your effectiveness in a certain job role. These qualities can be used to further enhance your suitability for a job when paired with skills that you’ve learned through experience.
Proactivity
If you choose to improve yourself independently, in taking on a course and passing this, you demonstrate proactivity. Employers cherish this personal quality because you have not waited to be told what to do. By doing so, you are leading others with your example. Leaders in companies do not have time to manage the work of employees every minute of the day. Therefore, if you are a quick thinker with the capacity to work with initiative, then you are going to be highly employable.
During your interview, you can prove proactivity by talking about times you have used your initiative in the past. You need to explore how this action on your part helped a project move forward or prevented a mistake from potentially scuppering work for the team.
Prove your proactivity by showing an interest in the company and the role. You should have read the job description and the “About Us” section of the website. Perhaps, you have come prepared with some questions that demonstrate your insight and passion for the work. It’s also important to make yourself familiar with the ins and outs of their business sector.
Resilience
Completing your qualifications via an online course proves to the employer that you cannot be stopped from progressing. Your choice to take a course using your own initiative shows you have decided you cannot be held back. You have taken the step to move forward even though it might suggest you have faced roadblocks to other types of learning.
An employee with resilience is essential for employers because they need to know you can take constructive criticism and progress. They will also need to know that even if you experience a failure that you will use this to propel yourself forward. A defeatist attitude, where a person always looks for an excuse, is not an admirable quality and can really stifle the efforts of a team. Therefore, if you can take the hits and bounce back – you are highly employable.
Confidence
Having gained the right qualifications and earned some hours of experience should be enough to get a job. But it is often not. The employer will need to know that you have the qualities that will allow you to assert this expertise and experience in the workplace. Fortunately, confidence is easily demonstrated in interviews by the way you conduct yourself. The biggest giveaway will be your body language. Therefore, from the first handshake to the final closing of the door after the interview, pretend you have this situation entirely in your control.
If you want to appear confident when answering questions, make sure you prepare your answers in advance and avoid using ums and ahs. You should also avoid repetition and beginning an answer before you know what you are going to say. A lot of jobs are lost by people who waffle for five minutes and then at the end give the perfect 30-second response. You just need that perfect response.
Adaptability
Employers love people who continue learning because it shows they are willing to put in the work to adapt. Being flexible in the workplace means your skills and knowledge will continue to be relevant – and the fact that you take responsibility for this shows an outstanding attitude.
You can demonstrate this at interview by exploring how you have stepped in for companies in the past, where you have done tasks that are not part of your responsibility. You can say how you were employed to do X but saw a problem and helped by completing Y.
Positivity
A good attitude seems to be essential when hoping to secure a job. Having a positive attitude can get you a long way with people. Being the most highly qualified person for the role means nothing if you have no enthusiasm and you appear lazy. No matter how skilled you are, you will be counterproductive to a company if no one wants to work with you.
Fortunately, unless you really don’t want the job, projecting positivity in the interview should be easy. Keep all comments optimistic, avoid blame or criticism of others, and smile.
There are many other traits that employers look for – but once you have these basics nailed, job interviews should be a breeze. As an employer, what would you look for in an employee?
