Dive Brief:
- Job seekers in the U.S. said they need to adjust their personalities to fit into their workplace culture, with 86% saying doing this is a core professional skill and 83% saying that people who can’t may not stay in their jobs, according to a new Express Employment Professionals-Harris Poll survey.
- More than two-thirds (67%) of job seekers said they’ve modified parts of their personalities to better align with their company’s culture, and 63% said that who they were at work was different than who they were outside of work.
- Despite stereotypes, the most adaptable workers were Generation Z, with 80% saying they changed themselves to fit in at work and 75% saying they’re different outside the workplace. That willingness to modify workplace behavior becomes progressively less pronounced among older generations, with only half of baby boomers reporting a change and only 42% reporting a difference.
Dive Insight:
The research surveyed 1,000 U.S. job seekers and just over 1,000 U.S. hiring decision-makers and found that the ability to be a different person at work was considered a critical personality trait by both hiring managers and job seekers.
One survey respondent said “a calm and organized approach helped reduce stress during tight deadlines,” which helped with team collaboration and focus. Another job seeker said that when a teammate was defensive, colleagues were less likely to offer feedback, which slowed decision-making. Meanwhile, another respondent said several employees left their jobs because of an “extremely demanding and overbearing” co-worker.
In fact, 94% of hiring managers and 91% of applicants said that being able to adapt at work affected overall perceptions of job performance. In addition, 99% of hiring managers and 90% of job seekers said having “a positive or approachable personality” could factor positively into career advancement.
However, opinions are split on how important workplace personalities are. More than half (56%) of overall respondents said personalities don’t affect their job performance at all. Demographically, 71% of Gen Zers agree, as do 54% of millennial employees, 51% of Gen Xers and 36% of baby boomers and seniors.
“Workplace culture should set expectations for how people treat one another, not prescribe who people have to be,” Bob Funk Jr., CEO of Express Employment International, said in a statement. “Shared values give people a foundation for how they work together while still allowing room for different personalities and ways of working. That requires flexibility from employers and employees alike. When both sides approach the workplace with respect and a willingness to adapt, people can be themselves while contributing to a culture where everyone can succeed.”
Yet another challenge for job seekers is that only half said their companies offer any developmental management or guidance when it comes to adapting their personalities to the workplace. Slightly more millennials (59%) and Gen Z workers (58%) said they got support than Gen Xers (39%) or baby boomers and seniors (30%).
This is especially important because a recent analysis of more than 86,000 working adults by Hogan Assessment found that almost everyone at a company has at least one aspect of their personality that could potentially interfere with their job performance, relationships or reputation when they’re placed under pressure.