Founders of two great business empires, Richard Branson of Virgin Group and Naomi Simpson of RedBalloon have shared their thoughts on what they look for when they are hiring staff. Interestingly, their views are not dissimilar.

In a LinkedIn Pulse article titled You can’t fake personality, passion or purpose, Branson shared four principles in the hiring process which he describes as Virgin Values, which are:

• Personality – personality wins over book smarts and job-specific skills as it can’t be trained. Virgin look for friendly and considerate people who like working with each other and keep the company culture vibrant.
• Experience – top grades and qualifications mean nothing compared to people with transferable skills and think-different mentality who can see problems as opportunities and inspire creativity.
• Passion – in a world where 9-5 workers are no longer the norm, it’s important to hire passionate people who work their hours with more commitment
• Purpose – coupled with passion, purpose will keep people focused on the job at hand, and ultimately separate the successful from the unsuccessful.

Branson also underlined the need to hire people who have the skills he and his existing team lacked. Founding director of RedBalloon and REDii, Naomi Simson, also lists “hire people who complement you” as her top hiring tip in the LinkedIn Pulse article How I hire: looking for passion.

Following are the criteria of people who make it past “The Big Red Door” of Redballon:

• Sharing the same values, passion, and aligned to the same purpose. This can be filtered by asking questions like passion the candidates have in their lives, what excites them about life, about a bad day at work and asking for real examples on how they align with the values of the business
• Having strengths and skills that complement the company
• Being deeply committed to what the organisation is doing, as opposed to those who simply works for the paycheck.
• Persistent in their viewpoint, listen deeply and work collaboratively, but not pig-headed about it.

More articles on My Health Career:

• Making university graduates more work ready
• Career query: Whose dreams are you chasing? By Karen Bremner
• From burnout to successful practice, a young family and volunteer projects – by dentist Dr Rachel Hall

Image: Sira Anamwong – freedigitalphotos.net