Stop Hiring CVs. Start Hiring Humans

Let’s be honest: hiring feels a lot like dating.

• CVs are Tinder profiles — polished, cropped, and sometimes suspiciously vague.
• Interviews? First dates, where everyone is pretending they’re cooler than they are.
• And yes, ghosting happens here too — no explanation, just silence.

Whether you’re running a global corporation, a family-run bakery, or your first start-up from the kitchen table - the truth doesn’t change: finding the right person is hard.

Every business has its quirks — different cultures, values, expectations. But here’s what most miss: companies aren’t really evaluating people at all.

Sure, you can scan the CV and tick the boxes. But the real question is: who’s the person behind the paper? That’s where the story and the risk actually lives.

The mindset. The soft skills. The way they think when things go wrong. That’s the part that decides whether someone will thrive - or quietly unravel in three months.

Where Hiring Goes Wrong??

Recently, I stumbled on a finance lead role at Koru Kids . I’m not job-hunting, but their process made me stop mid-scroll. Why? Because it felt human.

They weren’t just looking for technical checkboxes. They were asking:

• What’s your vision?
• How do you think?
• Who are you when things get messy?

Refreshing, Innovative, and I have no doubt that they will find the right person.

Most companies don’t do this. They hire like they’re shopping at IKEA: looks good on the shelf, right size, decent reviews. Then they get home, open the box, and… surprise! 300 screws, no instructions, and nobody knows where the Allen key went.

Our brains love love love shortcuts and in hiring, that shortcut is assuming that past success equals future success. Psychologists call it the fundamental attribution error. Translation? We give credit to the person without considering the environment.

A CV tells you what someone has done. It doesn’t tell you how they’ll react when the till doesn’t balance, or when the printer jams five minutes before a client deadline.

That’s not on paper. That’s in the mindset.

You Can Teach Skills. You Can’t Teach Mindset.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: in most roles, mentality matters more than mastery.

You can teach someone software. You can’t teach them to stop pointing fingers every time something goes wrong.

Most of us are familiar with the terminology of growth mindset — the belief that abilities can be developed through effort and learning. So people with it see mistakes as feedback. People without it treat mistakes as character assassination.

Let’s make this real. Say you own a café:

• Candidate A has years of barista experience but sighs dramatically when you suggest a new menu.
• Candidate B has never pulled an espresso shot but lights up when you show them how.

Who will still be with you — and thriving — six months from now?

Exactly.

Skills get you in the door. Mindset keeps you there.

Stop Hiring for "Fit" Start Hiring for "Add"

Another trap: hiring for culture fit.

One of the biggest traps in hiring? Culture fit.

Sounds warm and fuzzy. But usually means: Do they already look, think, and act like us?

Translation? That’s bias, dressed up as belonging.

What leaders should chase instead is culture add. The person who makes the team stronger and stretches it. The quiet thinker who says what others are too afraid to. The rookie who re-injects energy into routines that had gone stale.

Psychologists call this ingroup bias — our tendency to favour people who feel familiar. It’s why managers unconsciously hire “mini-me’s.” But building a team of clones doesn’t create resilience. It creates echo chambers.

And this isn’t just corporate. I’ve seen family-run shops hire “the neighbour’s cousin” because he “fit in.” Six months later, they’re drowning in drama, and customers wonder why the vibe feels off.

Culture isn’t about sameness. It’s about contribution.

What Hiring Reveals About Leadership

Here’s the part no one likes: hiring isn’t just about candidates. It’s a mirror of your leadership.

How you hire tells people everything about how you’ll lead them later.

• If your interview feels like an interrogation scene from CSI, don’t expect collaboration once they join.
• If your questions are all generic (“biggest weakness?” “five-year plan?”), don’t expect original answers.
• If you hire in panic just to “get a body,” don’t expect loyalty.

Candidate's notice. Fast.

This is confirmation bias — once someone gets an impression, they start looking for proof to confirm it. If your process feels dismissive, they’ll assume the culture is too. And you’ll spend months trying to prove them wrong.

Why start a relationship on the back foot?

The Human Equation

Let’s be real: you don’t hire job titles. You hire humans — with quirks, blind spots, strengths, and patterns that no CV bullet point will ever capture.

And humans bring more than bullet points:

• Do they own mistakes — or cover them up?
• Do they ask better questions — or wait for orders?
• Do they bring pride — or just the bare minimum?
• Do they collaborate — or compete for airtime?

Psychologists call this locus of control. People with an internal locus believe they can shape outcomes. People with an external locus? They blame luck, broken systems, or everyone else. And trust me, you’ll feel the difference by week one.

If you run a corner shop- who do you want when the card machine breaks? If you’re building a start-up - who do you want when your biggest client cancels overnight? The answer is the same: the person who takes ownership, not excuses.

That’s the human factor. That’s the hire.

A Smarter Way to Hire

So how do we stop hiring cardboard cut-outs with glossy CVs and start finding real people?

Here’s a better way, whether you’re scaling globally or hiring your first employee:

1. Audition, don’t interrogate. Give them a real-world task. Watch how they think, not just what they say.
2. Check values in action. Forget “Are you a team player?” Ask instead: “Tell me about a time you worked with someone who drove you mad. How did you handle it?”
3. Shift from “fit” to “add.” Who stretches the team’s perspective? Who strengthens what’s already working?
4. Let them meet the team. Because no one succeeds in isolation.
5. Slow down. Hire in panic and you’ll manage in regret.

The best hiring processes aren’t about catching people out. They’re about clarity: This is who we are. This is how we work. This is what we expect.

Clarity isn’t control. It’s kindness — and it’s the fastest way to build trust.

So...

If you’re only scanning the CV, probably not. If you’re looking for curiosity, resilience, and humanity — then maybe yes.

Because skills are teachable. Tools can be learned. But mindset? That’s the piece that shapes everything else.

The real question is: 👉 Are you hiring for the past — or for the future?

Businesses don’t collapse because they hired the wrong spreadsheet whiz. They collapse because they hired the wrong mindset.

Hiring isn’t about finding the “perfect” candidate. It’s about finding the person whose presence makes the whole team stronger.

So next time you’re interviewing — whether it’s for your finance department, your café, or your handyman business — skip the clichés. Go deeper.

Ask:

• How do you handle failure?
• What’s the last thing you taught yourself?
• What frustrates you most — and how do you deal with it?

Because that’s the real CV. And trust me — it tells you more than the paper one ever will.