Are you the office 'vibe lifter'? The rise of the personality hire (2024)

While you might think education, work experience and skills are the holy grail trifecta when it comes to securing a new job, it looks like charisma—or rizz if you speak Gen Z—also plays a massive part.

That’s because an increasing number of employers are hiring younger employees based on the energy or ‘vibe’ they bring to the workplace, rather than what’s written on their CV.

Just ask social media. If you search ‘personality hire’ on the social media app, you’ll discover a plethora of videos detailing and demonstrating the phenomenon.

In fact, a survey conducted by SHRMfound that as many as 32 per cent of HR professionals are using personality tests to weed out candidates during the hiring process.

Big personality in residence

There are many reasons why personality hires are becoming more commonplace in the workplace.

For starters, in the post-Covid world of work where approximately 40 per cent of employees follow a hybrid working model and spend at least one day of the working week at home, employers are trying to make coming to the office as enticing as possible.

And a friendly, buzzy environment versus an empty office where nobody talks to each other is a no-brainer.

It’s also been proven that an office environment that is more agreeable, harmonious and cooperative is good for morale and can lead to increased productivity.

Then there’s the soft skills argument.

While the office vibe lifter or personality hire is most often more junior, it’s highly likely that they’ve mastered several key soft skills. These include communication and teamwork, which are listed as two of the most important soft skills a worker will need to possess in the future, according to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report.

Bad vibes

However, when someone is consistently swanning into the office 40 mins late, iced coffee in hand, because they’re having their best summer, but everyone lets them away with it because their weekend escape stories are guaranteed to have the entire department in stitches, what message does this send to other employees?

Specifically, the staff members who never bend or break the rules, always meet their KPIs and targets and don’t give their manager any hassle, yet are not being rewarded for their efforts.

Take parents and caregivers as the perfect example. Parental burnout is a very real issue affecting working mothers and recent research has identified that 74 per cent of working mums bear the mental load for family life.

As a result, 42 per cent are seeking a new job that offers better support with family life, highlighting that if employers aren’t willing to offer the same flexibility and allowances to all staff, special treatment for some but not all could start to flatter rather than lift the office ‘vibe’.

Additionally, proximity bias—when those in senior leadership roles subconsciously show favouritism towards the workers that are in close proximity to them day-to-day—tends to accommodate and assist those who are the most visible in the workplace, i.e. the loud, funny personality hire.

Moving forward

If you suspect that you are the personality hire on your team, there are a couple of things you can do to ensure you’re being taken seriously on a professional level.

While you can’t switch off your extroverted behaviours, you can ensure you’re completing the job in hand and not relying on your more diligent teammates to pick up your slack.

However, if you feel as though the personality hire on your team is sucking the lifeblood out of your career, it might be time to think about your long-term options elsewhere.

Want to put the rizz back into your career? Browse thousands of job openings today via the Mail Job Board