They bring the fun (Picture: Getty)
Most of us have that one person in the office who is a breath of fresh air when you’re having a crappy work day – maybe they’re super-friendly, always cracking jokes, or just a positive presence to have around.
You’ll often find these social butterflies fluttering around from team to team, uniting the business and bringing some fun into mundane work life.
TikTok has recently christened this particular type of charismatic employee as ‘the personality hire’ – with many users even owning up to the fact they think they might be one in their own workplace.
But the trend has ignited debate: should companies be hiring just to ‘bring the vibes’ to an office, rather than down to skills and experience? After all, what does this say about workplace culture on the whole.
And with the TikTok trend gaining traction, should people who think they might be their workplace ‘personality hire’ be concerned?
‘It’s not a bad thing if you’re willing to accept it, but you have to think about if the role has performance incentives, consider what yours are and how whether this will impact your ability to earn bonuses,’ David Rice, HR expert at People Managing People, tells Metro.
‘The question comes down to your ambition and desires to be taken seriously. If you’re okay with it and you enjoy being that presence in the office, it’s fine.
‘But what happens when you have a rough period in your life where it’s hard for you to be the vibes person? Is that what you want your value to be attached to? Will you provide the value they’re looking for if you’re just going through the motions? Will you be seen as expendable if the business goes through hard times? Will you get the type of support someone who is seen as a high potential will receive, if you want to pursue a business-critical goal?
‘Those are all questions you have to answer and be comfortable with.’
Should one individual really be the answer to better workplace culture? (Picture: Getty)
While Robbie Bryant, a careers expert at Open Study College, explains that it differs from industry to industry – and, often, these ‘personality hires’ have skills that can work well across the board.
He explains: ‘Sales, client services or events are always a great area for personality hires as they can communicate well with people from all walks of life and generally are quite good at getting people to buy into them.
‘Business owners or hiring managers will always seek talent, but team camaraderie and collaboration can also generate impressive results for the business. The “personality hire” can often bring out confidence in others or make up for those traits if there is a lack of it across the team.’
However, future work specialist and executive coach Harriet Minter points out that companies shouldn’t be relying on these individuals to maintain a company’s culture.
She says: ‘Best hiring practice is to hire for skills and then use good management techniques to bring out the best in someone’s personality, you shouldn’t be relying on one person to create your company’s culture or bring energy and enthusiasm to the office.
‘Hiring someone because you think they’re going to bring energy or fun to your office sounds like putting a lot of pressure on someone to always be “the fun one” rather than actually doing their job.’
Harriet also encourages anyone who thinks they might be one to take drastic action.
‘If you think that you might be the “personality hire” my advice would be to find somewhere else to work,’ she continues.
‘Much like you should never be the smartest person in the room, you never want to be the funniest either – partly because if you’re just being paid to be fun, go be a stand-up comedian.
‘But mainly because, when it comes to the crunch, businesses value profit over personality and however much your company claims to love your zany personality, they love the bottom line more.’