Hiring and promoting good-looking people
Picture this. You have two candidates who want the same job. They both have identical qualifications, similar work histories, and amazing attitudes. There’s only one point of difference. One of them could grace the front cover of Vogue, while the other is more suited to the cover of Death Metal Monthly. One of them makes you blush; the other could give you thrush. Who would you hire or promote?
A new survey conducted by Nature has found that two-thirds of Australian employees believe that good-looking people are more likely to have successful careers. If this is true, then this means that despite being one of the fattest nations on earth, we still unflappably judge the unflattering.
The national poll also found that 80 percent of people feel that being good-looking is an advantage in job interviews. Perhaps a big bosom or a bulging bicep really does have its benefits, but I wonder how much of that clouds our judgement. Maybe we just think that the two candidates are similar in all respects, but really it’s the unattractive one that has the edge. It just so happens to be that our jaded mind, drunk with lust and visual splendour, is unable to be objective when the body it’s responsible for is so drawn towards a certain individual.
Three-quarters of the people surveyed were convinced that managers prefer good-looking employees. Could this be because they themselves prefer good-looking colleagues? I’ve lost count of the number of times both male and female friends have commented about the latest hottie to be hovering near the water cooler.
And here’s the clincher. Despite conceding that how they look determines how far they go, only 10 percent of the poll’s respondents were prepared to have cosmetic surgery to improve their career prospects.
Regardless, it seems that some people are happy to promote their looks to land their dream job, or in some cases, any job. I stumbled across an advertisement recently on Gumtree where the title was “Good looking American living in Sydney looking for a job.” This candidate proceeded to talk about the offers he was already receiving, including this one: “I had some dude call me up and wanted to pay me so he can smell my feet.” Right. Mission accomplished.
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An accurate example of the sort of people you’ll find on Gumtree at the very least!
While I don’t think unattractive people have it easy, I think that being quite plain is an advantage in some occupations where it’s good to blend in.
Perhaps ‘people’ positions like sales or media roles would benefit from having good-looking staff, but in back room operations it can be a distraction to hire attractive staff.
Also consider that some people find good-looking people intimidating – as an employer you have to decide whether that’s an advantage or a disadvantage.
I like your thought process……
Great blog James. I think in some ways it’s very true. As humans are are quite visual and will judge someone in the first few seconds we meet them. It’s looks first, personality second. There is a preconceived notion that good looking people are going to be more successful. Take the case of Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent. As an older and someone visually “unappealing” person, she was expected to fail. Everyone seemed so surprised when she proved to the world that she was talented. But we are a judgmental society and it’s not just looks that people are judged on, it’s age, sex, race etc.
Unfortunately I’m not yet at a level that I get to promote or hire employees. However, at my current job I can confidently say that this notion of favouring good-looking people was blindingly obvious when I walked through the door for my interview.
Coincidence or not, the workplace environment is always positive and fun and the business is going from strength to strength despite the recession. It seems to me that the employer is making the correct choices.
It depends on how you look at it. Because I am a firm believer in personality enhancing/detracting from someone’s looks. Yes, someone may be visually attractive, but if they have a horrible personality it detracts from their looks. The same can be said of someone who may not be so visually appealing but has a great personality. This then enhances their looks. I think when hiring, most employers will look at the whole package. Not just looks but personality, work ethic and most importantly.. abilities!
It’s been a well known fact for quite a few years that ‘better looking’ people earn significantly more than their more ‘plain’ counterparts. Sad but true.
It’s over-simplifying the situation. One way to also look at it is that beautiful people don’t have to work as hard to get to where they are, by reverse, ugly people are more driven to get to where they want to be. Furthermore, people are complex, there is no simply rule of thumb on this, what may work for you being a beautiful face may work against you in a difference situation.
Life is about balance, same goes for job prospects for beautiful people, perhaps that’s why no one is prepared to go to extremes.
Hi Jim, I used to own a cafe in Sydney and I purposely hired good looking people. It’s good for business as customers would come back time and again to “that cafe with the hot staff”!! Besides, who wants to look at fat, ugly people when they’re eating breakfast.
Yep, I agree.. Even as horrible as it sounds my customers love good looking sales people.. As my customer is right – I just follow. I found a great Flat Fee Recruitment Guy, $1,500. And the funny thiing is I asked for good looking people, and he said he had so much fun with the job.. umm.. it’s called recruitment alternative – just google it. they are australia wide. Great Blog, I agree 100%. Bianca. Smarteronline.com.au
I can comment first hand as a recruiter that I have been ‘guided’ by some clients (albeit very rarely) keen to preserve common attributes found in their existing staff – even going as far as saying words to the effect of ‘find me a 23 year old stunner!’
Although I would outwardly question the ethics of working to such a brief, it does serve to underline that in certain voactions, perceived good looks can be just as ‘attractive’ as relevant experience. Roles that could fall into this category may include reception and front of house positions, or sales roles requiring an individual to foster harmonious relationships. Most sales occur as a result of the buyer liking the person they’re buying from…
Moreover, whether coincidental or otherwise, I have discovered that after nine years, certain jobs have a higher component of better looking people (at least in my opinion!).
Although I have never personally hired someone on the basis of their looks, I definitely know clients who have, do and will.
Interesting article, I work in recruitment software and am now thinking about how we can create a hottie rating in our software!
A lawyer friend of mine once said “a hot secretary costs exactly the same as an ugly one”. Enough said…
Wow does this mentality really exist? Who wants a workforce of Barbie and Ken dolls when all Barbie cares about is matching her lipstick to her purse. I would much rather (and have) hire sophisticated, intelligent, hard-working individuals no matter what their physical form. If you hire someone that spends 2 hours in front of a mirror to get ready of a morning, that is exactly what they do all day long. Give me personal substance in a human being anyday. And no, I am not ugly, just smart!!
I doubt anyone does so intentionally, but I think that only the most naive of people think that looks do not affect a manager’s subconscious impression of you, and thus your odds of being hired or promoted. Otherwise we’d just wander into work in our pjs.
These days, majority of the employees working in recruitment software companies are thinking about how they can create a hot rating in their software!
@Milly: the article was referring to attractive people versus unaattractive people not vain Vs humble