Rethinking Recruitment: Why Hiring for Attitude is Key to Compliance with the Worker Protection Act 2024

As the Worker Protection Act 2024 comes into effect, HR professionals face a pivotal opportunity to reassess and enhance their recruitment strategies. While compliance with new regulations is crucial, the focus shouldn’t solely be on ticking boxes. Instead, it’s time to pivot towards a more profound and transformative approach: hiring for attitude.

The Conventional Recruitment Focus: Skills and Experience

Traditionally, recruitment has centered around evaluating candidates based on their skills, experience, and qualifications. This focus is undoubtedly important; after all, hiring individuals with the right technical skills is essential for operational success. However, this approach can inadvertently overlook a critical component of successful workplace integration: attitude.

The Shift Towards Attitude: Why It Matters

1. Understanding Attitude in the Context of Compliance

Attitude, in this context, encompasses a candidate’s approach to workplace behaviour, including their views on harassment, ethical standards, and interpersonal interactions. The Worker Protection Act 2024 introduces stricter regulations and expectations around workplace behaviour and harassment. Therefore, hiring individuals who align with these values is more important than ever.

A candidate’s attitude towards these issues can have a significant impact on:

• Workplace Culture: Employees with positive attitudes towards respect and ethical behaviour contribute to a healthier, more inclusive work environment.
• Compliance Risks: Individuals who understand and value compliance are less likely to engage in or tolerate behaviour that could lead to disciplinary, dismissal and legal issues.
• Organisational Reputation: A workforce that embodies strong ethical standards enhances the company’s reputation and builds trust with stakeholders.

2. Predicting Future Behaviour Through Attitude

The challenge lies in predicting how a candidate’s attitude will translate into their behaviour once hired. Traditional interviews and reference checks may not always reveal this aspect accurately. To address this, HR professionals need to employ more targeted strategies:

• Behavioral Interviews: Ask questions designed to uncover a candidate’s attitudes and past behaviours related to harassment and ethical issues. For instance, “Can you provide an example of a time when you had witnessed inappropriate behaviour in the workplace? What did you do about it?”
• Situational Judgement Tests: These tests present hypothetical scenarios to evaluate how candidates would handle various situations, providing insights into their decision-making and ethical reasoning.
• Psychometric Testing: Tools that assess personality traits and attitudes can offer additional data on how well candidates align with organisational values.

Implementing Attitude-Based Hiring in Your Organisation

1. Revise Job Descriptions and Criteria

Ensure that job descriptions reflect the importance of alignment with organisational values and compliance expectations. Clearly state that candidates should demonstrate respect, integrity, and a commitment to ethical behaviour.

2. Train Hiring Managers

Equip hiring managers with the skills and knowledge to evaluate attitudes effectively. Provide training on conducting behavioural interviews and interpreting psychometric assessments.

3. Integrate Continuous Feedback

Adopt a continuous feedback mechanism to assess how well new hires align with the desired attitudes and behaviours. Use this feedback to refine recruitment processes and ensure ongoing alignment with compliance goals.

4. Implement Attitude Assessments

Modern attitude assessments (like this one) are useful tools in understanding what sorts of bad or counter-productive behaviours may be present in the applicants and candidates that apply. Implementing this type of assessment is crucial in understanding how well candidates align with your cultural values and what you find acceptable behaviour in the workplace.

Conclusion: Embracing a Holistic Approach to Recruitment

As HR professionals navigate the requirements of the Worker Protection Act 2024, it’s crucial to broaden the focus of your recruitment process beyond just technical skills and experience.

By prioritising attitude and alignment with organisational values, companies can not only comply with new regulations but also foster a healthier, more respectful workplace culture.

Hiring for attitude is not just about avoiding legal pitfalls; it’s about creating an environment, a culture, where respect, integrity, and ethical behaviour thrive. Embrace this approach to transform your recruitment strategy and position your organisation for long-term success and compliance.

About the Author: Paul Newman

Paul is Co-founder & CTO for Big 5 Assessments. He's worked in the Psychometric Testing industry for over 25 years. Paul is responsible for the day–to–day running of the business, but also for overseeing the technology side of the business. Paul has extensive experience in software development, product management, sales and marketing. In addition, Paul also has frontline recruitment & selection experience from sourcing and attracting candidates, assessing, screening, behavioural interviewing, offer management and resource planning as well as developing assessment centres and competency frameworks from scratch.