Hiring for Openness

Openness is one of the Big Five personality traits.  It is the trait that most people are happy to possess in the extreme.  No one readily admits to being closed-minded or enjoying repetition and ruts.  Few will own that they don’t have a single creative bone in their body.  But the truth is that people come with a variety of personality features, including degrees of openness.  So how does the openness personality trait manifest in reality, and how does that impact a person professionally?

Let’s start by understanding Openness.  According to Robert McCrae and Paul Costa’s Five Factor Model, openness is best characterized by originality, imaginativeness, broad interests, and daring.  The sub traits of the openness domain are:

• Imagination
• Artistic interests
• Emotionality
• Adventurousness
• Intellect
• Liberalism

So what does that look like in practice?

A High Degree of Openness

In general, openness implies that a person is willing and interested in new things, but that can come across in a variety of ways, and can be related to the thinking process and emotional approach to life as well as physical experiences. Overall, a person who has a high degree of openness has a deep capacity to reflect and grow as a person emotionally, spiritually and intellectually.  His approach to life is that each person is a work-in-progress and change is normal.  This person is:

1. Physically adventurous – When it comes to physical experiences, a person with a high level of openness will often enjoy venturing beyond his comfort zone. He seeks out new, unconventional and unfamiliar experiences.  This person is willing to go across town to dine at a new restaurant or taste a new fusion cuisine.  He enjoys travelling to new destinations rather than return to the same spot year after year.  And, he embraces different cultures and practices.  Anything routine quickly becomes boring.
2. Intellectually bold – When it comes to thought process, a person with a high degree of openness will process new information quickly.  He is open to new ideas and experiences and is able to reframe things in his mind quickly.  That makes him intellectually efficient.  He also has a high degree of ingenuity, thinking outside the box and coming up with clever ways of looking at things that others may not even consider.  An “open” person is very curious.  He’s eager to learn about things he doesn’t know and dive deep into understanding them.  He will take a casual, idle thought and do research to find out more.  He is not easily threatened and is able to look at, consider and tolerate other points of view.  Higher levels of openness can lead a person to be more open to novel or unconventional ideas and viewpoints.  This is a person who can see both sides of an argument and is able to walk a mile in another person’s moccasins.
3. Emotionally exposed – The open person cares a lot about how things look and feel.  He is open to beauty and notices when something is appealing and impactful to the senses.  This means he will find art, architecture, cuisine, music, writing and all areas of creative expression stimulating.  He is free to explore human culture and expression.

A Low Degree of Openness

By contrast, people with low level of openness are really the opposite of “open”.

1. Physically safe – When it comes to physical experiences, a person with a low level of openness is not interested in venturing outside his comfort zone.  New, unconventional and unfamiliar experiences might even cause discomfort or stress.  This person will dine at the same restaurants and is likely to be considered a “regular”, ordering the same thing to eat day-in and day-out.   He has a favorite place to vacation, and gladly returns to the same spot year after year.  He finds comfort in familiar surroundings and will avoid opportunities to try new experiences or make drastic career changes.  He prefers to work at the same place for a long period of time and do the same work year after year and not get bored.
2. Intellectually Analytical – When it comes to thought process, this a person with a low degree of openness prefers to focus on one thing and do deep analysis on that over long periods of time.  This person is not exploring new ideas but prefers to deeply understand fewer things. Creativity and ingenuity are not tools in his toolbox.  A person who is has a low degree of openness will happily adhere to set routines and schedules.  He prefers the ‘tried-and-tested’ familiarity of traditions, and will be considered by many to be closed to new experiences.
3. Emotionally closed – A person who has a low degree of openness is not really noticing the nuances of creative expression because he himself is not highly creative.

There is nothing wrong with having either a high degree of openness or having a low degree of openness, as long as it aligns professionally with what the person does for a living.   The problem occurs when a very open person is put in a job that requires repetition and routine, or the person who has a low degree of openness is placed in a job that requires great creativity and a lot of change.  Each will surely feel uncomfortable doing a job that does not align with his personality.

Here are some examples of positions where a high degree of openness is an asset:

1. Positions that require collaboration — Intellectual efficiency and tolerance are useful in any job where a team works together to come up with new ideas or solutions to problems.  Being able to understand a colleague’s new idea quickly and incorporate it without feeling resistant or defensive are key to teamwork.
2. Positions that require creativity — Being able to see a new path forward, perhaps one that saves resources or reduces bottlenecks or innovates a product or service, is invaluable.  Ingenuity combined with a natural sense of curiosity and desire to research is also unique and helpful.  Any person who is able to suggest out-of-the-box solutions and then critically evaluate whether the timing is right for a big change or whether it’d be better to strategically suggest innovations at a different juncture is an asset to any organization.

Jobs that call for creative thinking, a flexible attitude and constant change require people who are very open, such as:   graphic designers, art directors, art gallery curators, media researchers, symphony conductors, film directors, computer programmers, construction managers, architects, interior decorators, etc.  These jobs all benefit from high level of openness.

Here are some examples of positions where being less open is an asset:

1. Positions where discretion is key – Curiosity is not always an asset if it involves seeking information that is actually provided on a need-to-know basis only.  Most workplaces have some information that is privy and employees who are extremely curious and looking to learn more may find a more closed environment frustrating and restrictive.
2. Positions that require someone to stay focused – A person who desires a lot of change and challenges may find a position that is routine and repetitive very confining and boring.  Someone who feels constantly bored will eventually leave, increasing the turnover rate.

Openness, Age and Location

It appears that openness is something that is impacted by both age and location.  Research suggests that openness to experience peaks around the age of 19.  Younger people may be more willing to embrace change.  But as people age, openness to new ideas and experiences seems to progressively decline.  That said, some people are open to new ideas their entire lifetime.  Inventors and artists, for example, are people who generally score high on openness their entire lives.

Openness also tends to be found in some places more than others.  One study looking at cross-cultural differences in personality traits found that the nation where an individual lived had a statistically significant impact on openness.  For example, people in Chile and Belgium rated the highest on openness, while respondents from Japan and Hong Kong ranked the lowest.  In fact, people in East Asia scored lower on openness than all other world regions, while South America scored higher than all other world regions.  Also, people on the East and West Coasts of the U.S. scored higher on openness, which may mean that people who are open to creativity and innovation were drawn to places that are considered hotbeds of innovation and creativity such as Manhattan, Hollywood and Silicon Valley.  This is important for companies wanting to recruit talent that has a high degree of openness.

Ultimately, a person’s personality affects their motivation, stress, interpersonal relationships, professionalism and willingness to risk.  A person who is more open is more motivated by tasks that allows them to learn new things and tackle new challenges.  Open people are stressed out by repetition and restrictions.  They will be drawn toward positions where they are allowed to be creative and collaborative with others, and they are more likely to change jobs often in the search for new challenges, unless their current job offers a lot of opportunities for growth.  It is imperative for companies to recognize the impact that personality has on job performance.  Hiring managers should identify what personality types fit best with a position and look for that in candidates.  It is not something that shows up on a resume or cover letter.  But it is something that can be ascertained in a job interview or during personality testing.  The goal is to find the best fit because that is likely to have an impact on job performance and turnover.  Good hiring.

Quote of the Week

“People who are high on openness to experience crave novelty, variety, diversity, new ideas, travel.  People low on it like things that are familiar, safe and dependable.”  Jonathan Haidt

© 2021, Keren Peters-Atkinson. All rights reserved.