Dee Hock, founder of VISA International, advises:

“Hire and promote first on the basis of integrity; second, motivation; third, capacity; fourth, understanding; fifth, knowledge; and last and least, experience.

Without integrity, motivation is dangerous; without motivation, capacity is impotent; without capacity, understanding is limited; without understanding, knowledge is meaningless; without knowledge, experience is blind.”

The founder and CEO of VISA is now 90 years old. Considered a guru among organizations, he is still active today through his blog.

Is selecting personnel in line with the advice by the director born back in 1929 still valid in the digital era? Which candidate needs a company that wants to be recognized for its values?At

Globalvia we mainly seek three competences in our candidates:

• Passion
• Locus of Internal Control
• Curiosity

Curiosity from the point of view of evolution has allowed human beings to make progress. It is the thirst for knowledge. Sometimes we find candidates who seek knowledge on a specific subject. We often find that candidates who are outstanding in this, are interested in everything.

They are candidates who can talk about all manner of things, from flower-growing to electric guitars, or agile methods and speak about these things with the same enthusiasm as they do about their area of professional experience. They are the humanists of the 21st century, polymaths or all-round professionals. They are actually people who are curious about everything.

As for the Locus of Control, this is a term coined by Julian B. Rotter, a United States psychologist. It is defined as the belief by a person in the responsibility they have through their actions. And this can be internal or external.

In cases when the locus of control is internal, people believe they have a lot of power over what happens, whereas in the case of the external locus of control, people believe that circumstances mean they cannot act in any other way.

This is to do with feeling the cause of the consequence of life. If i am the cause of my life, there will always be something I can do, even if it is just taking my circumstances the best I can.

If I am consequential, there is no other alternative. There is no space between action and reaction, because only I am capable of seeing “what things are like”.

In a conversation in any circumstances it is possible to see where a person’s locus of control is. If everything is everyone else’s fault, for everything they can’t do, of how life would be different if this or that had not happened, we have a candidate who feels helpless against circumstances. How can this person help us move up to the next level? How will they question, change or challenge if they are not capable of having an influence on their own circumstances?

And finally, passion. Defined as enthusiasm, vehemence, always polite, the engine that will help us carry on having energy in the face of adverse circumstances. Interviewing people who dare to show their passion, to explain their preference for a subject, to express their emotions, is incredibly stimulating.

And what about knowledge on the subject and a command of English? Are they not important?

Of course they are. A lawyer must be a law graduate and for a job where construction projects need to be signed off, we will need an Engineer. However, although those aspects are unquestionably necessary, they are not enough on their own.

There are officers in the 20th century who understood this, and others in the 21st century who do not share it. The success of an organization will be to find and look after people who are prepared to take on the Company’s vision and make it their vision. To spend the biggest part of their days making themselves responsible for the post they occupy and to do everything they can from it.

In 90 years employees have gained infinite possibilities, among others a computer and Internet connection, which today is the be all and end all of production resources. Other aspects remain unchangeable, those that will change the world, those candidates that all companies want to have on their workforce, namely those who unit self-cognition, competences and values. And insofar as that is concerned, we can only agree with Dee Hock.

María Porta Ferrer – Communication, Talent and CSR Manager