Table of Contents
- Why I Hire for Attitude Before Skills
- Skills Can Be Taught
- The Question I Ask: “Can This Person Grow?”
- Company Culture Starts With Who You Hire
- What I Look For When Hiring Remote Employees
- The Best Team Members Take Ownership
- Hiring Is Just the Beginning
- Build the Team You’d Want to Join
- Key Takeaways
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Continue the Conversation
- About the Author
If you ask me what I look for first when hiring, you might expect me to say experience.
Or technical skills.
Or an impressive résumé.
Those things matter.
But they’re not the first thing I look at.
After years of building businesses and hiring people for both physical and online companies, I’ve learned something that took me a lot longer to figure out than I’d like to admit:
I’d rather hire someone with the right attitude and teach them the skills than hire someone with all the skills but the wrong mindset.
Because here’s the thing about hiring:
A résumé tells you what someone has done.
An interview can tell you what someone knows.
But neither one automatically tells you who you’re going to be working with when things go wrong.
And things will go wrong.
A client will change their mind.
A deadline will move.
A system will break.
Someone will make a mistake.
That’s when you find out what kind of person you actually hired.
Why I Hire for Attitude Before Skills
I’ve made enough hiring mistakes to know that the most impressive candidate on paper isn’t always the best person for the job.
I’ve hired people who looked amazing on paper but didn’t work out.
I’ve also watched people with less experience become incredibly valuable because they were curious, coachable, responsible, and genuinely wanted to do a good job.
That changed the way I think about hiring.
I’m not looking for someone who already knows everything.
I’m looking for someone I can trust to learn.
That’s a very different standard.
And it’s especially important when you’re building a remote team, because you don’t have the luxury of physically sitting beside someone every day and watching how they work.
You need people who can communicate.
People who can think.
People who can ask questions.
People who can take ownership.
People who don’t disappear the moment something gets difficult.
Those qualities are gold.
Skills Can Be Taught
Let’s be honest.
Most technical skills can be learned.
You can teach someone how to use your CRM.
You can train them on your project management software.
You can teach them your SOPs.
You can show them how you want reports formatted.
You can train a virtual assistant on your specific processes.
But can you easily teach someone to care?
Can you teach someone to take responsibility?
Can you teach curiosity?
Can you teach integrity?
Can you teach someone to say, “I don’t know how to do this yet, but I’ll figure it out”?
That’s much harder.
And those are exactly the qualities that make someone valuable to a growing company.
This is why, when I’m hiring remote employees, I don’t just ask:
“Can this person do the job?”
I’m also asking:
“What happens when they don’t know how to do the job?”
That’s where attitude shows up.
The Question I Ask: “Can This Person Grow?”
One of the biggest questions I ask myself during the hiring process is:
Can this person grow?
Because the role they’re applying for today may not look the same six months from now.
Businesses change.
Clients change.
Technology changes.
Your team changes.
Your priorities change.
And if you’re growing quickly, your best people will often grow with the business.
I’ve seen people start in one role and eventually take on responsibilities that weren’t even part of their original job description.
Why?
Because they were willing to learn.
They asked good questions.
They took feedback seriously.
They didn’t say, “That’s not my job.”
They said, “Okay. How can I help?”
That difference is huge.
What I Look for in a Growth-Minded Employee
When I’m evaluating someone, I pay attention to things like:
- Do they ask thoughtful questions?
- Can they accept constructive feedback?
- Do they take responsibility when they make a mistake?
- Are they genuinely curious?
- Do they try to solve problems before escalating them?
- Can they communicate clearly?
- Do they follow through on what they say they’ll do?
- Do they seem excited to learn something new?
- Can they admit when they don’t know something?
None of these things require a fancy résumé.
But they can tell you a lot about how someone will actually perform once they’re on your team.
Company Culture Starts With Who You Hire
People sometimes talk about company culture as if it’s the office Christmas party.
It’s not.
Culture isn’t the pizza.
It’s not the Zoom background.
It’s not the team-building activity.
Culture is what happens when something goes wrong.
It’s how people communicate when they’re frustrated.
It’s how managers give feedback.
It’s how employees treat each other.
It’s whether people feel safe asking questions.
It’s whether people take responsibility or immediately start looking for someone to blame.
And culture starts with hiring.
Every person you add to your company changes the team.
That’s why hiring isn’t just about filling an empty seat.
You’re deciding what kind of company you’re building.
If you keep hiring people who only do exactly what they’re told, don’t be surprised when you end up with a team that constantly needs instructions.
If you hire people who think, communicate, and take ownership, you create a very different kind of organization.
The people you hire today help determine the company you become tomorrow.
Want to Build a Stronger Remote Team?
If you’re struggling to find people who can actually take ownership—not just complete tasks—Proximity Outsourcing can help you build a remote team with vetted professionals and ongoing support. Build Your Remote Team.
What I Look For When Hiring Remote Employees
Hiring remotely requires a slightly different mindset.
You can’t rely on someone physically being in the office.
You need to know that the person can work independently while still communicating well with the team.
For me, there are five qualities that stand out.
1. Ownership
If something goes wrong, do they take responsibility?
Or do they immediately explain why it wasn’t their fault?
I want the person who says:
“Here’s what happened. Here’s what I’ve done so far. Here’s what I think we should do next.”
That’s ownership.
2. Communication
Remote work can fall apart quickly when communication is poor.
I’m not looking for someone who sends a hundred Slack messages a day.
I’m looking for someone who knows what needs to be communicated, when it needs to be communicated, and how to communicate it clearly.
3. Coachability
Nobody comes into a new company knowing exactly how everything works.
The best remote employees aren’t necessarily the ones who need the least training.
They’re the ones who make the most of the training they receive.
4. Resourcefulness
I don’t want my team to wait for me every time they encounter a problem.
If they can Google it, research it, check the SOP, ask the right person, or come up with two possible solutions before coming to me, that’s incredibly valuable.
5. Integrity
This one is non-negotiable.
I need to trust that someone will do what they say they’ll do.
And if they can’t?
I want them to tell me early—not disappear and hope nobody notices.
The Best Team Members Take Ownership
One of my favorite things as a founder is seeing someone solve a problem before I even know there was a problem.
Not because I told them to.
Because they cared enough to notice.
That’s the kind of person you want on your team.
They don’t just complete tasks.
They think about outcomes.
They don’t ask, “What do I need to do?”
They start asking:
“What are we trying to accomplish?”
That’s a completely different level of thinking.
And it’s one of the reasons I believe great remote employees can become so much more than virtual assistants.
With the right person, the right training, and the right leadership, someone can grow into a specialist, a manager, a team lead, or a strategic partner in your business.
That’s why I don’t look at hiring as simply finding someone to take work off my plate.
I’m looking for people who can eventually carry something with me.
Hiring Is Just the Beginning
Here’s another mistake I see founders make:
They spend weeks trying to find the perfect person…
…and then spend almost no time thinking about what happens after the person says yes.
Hiring is only the beginning.
Even a fantastic employee can struggle if:
- Nobody explains what success looks like.
- Their manager constantly changes priorities.
- They don’t have access to the tools they need.
- They don’t know who to ask for help.
- Feedback only comes when something goes wrong.
- There are no clear expectations.
- They have no room to grow.
If you want people to perform well, give them a system that makes performing well possible.
At Proximity, our approach has evolved around not just finding talent, but supporting people through recruitment, onboarding, coaching, and ongoing team management.
That’s important because a great hire in a bad system can still fail.
And sometimes, what looks like a “bad employee” is actually a leadership or onboarding problem.
Great Employees Need Great Leadership
This is the part founders don’t always want to hear.
Sometimes the problem isn’t the employee.
It’s us.
We’re unclear.
We change our minds.
We don’t document anything.
We give vague instructions and then get annoyed when the result isn’t what we imagined.
We expect someone to “just know.”
I’ve done this too.
And it’s humbling.
If you want an employee who takes ownership, you have to give them enough clarity and authority to actually own something.
If you want someone to think independently, you have to stop micromanaging every tiny decision.
If you want people to grow, you have to give them opportunities to grow.
Leadership isn’t just finding good people.
It’s creating an environment where good people can become great.
Build the Team You’d Want to Join
Every time you’re hiring, you’re making a decision about the future of your company.
So don’t just ask:
“Can this person do the job?”
Ask:
“Would I trust this person with my clients?”
“Would I want to solve a difficult problem with this person?”
“Would I want this person representing my brand?”
“Will this person make the rest of my team better?”
And maybe the most important question:
“If I were applying for this job, would I want to work here?”
Because hiring is a two-way decision.
You’re evaluating them.
They’re evaluating you, too.
The best people have options.
If you want great people to stay, give them a company worth staying with.
That means fair expectations.
Good communication.
Opportunities to grow.
Respect.
Trust.
And leadership that doesn’t make them dread opening Slack on Monday morning.
Key Takeaways
If you’re hiring remote employees or building your first remote team, remember these:
- Hire for attitude, not just experience. Skills can be taught. Character is harder to change.
- Look for coachability. The best employee today may not be the most experienced candidate.
- Prioritize ownership. Look for people who think about solutions, not just tasks.
- Communication matters more in remote work. You need people who can work independently without becoming disconnected.
- Culture starts with hiring. Every new person influences how your company operates.
- Hiring doesn’t end when the contract is signed. Onboarding, coaching, feedback, and leadership determine whether people succeed.
- Don’t forget your role as the founder. Great people still need clarity, trust, and good management.
- Build a company people want to stay with. Retention starts long before an employee considers leaving.
Frequently Asked Questions
You should hire for attitude before skills because many technical skills can be taught, while qualities such as integrity, ownership, curiosity, coachability, and accountability are much harder to develop. The right attitude also makes training and collaboration easier.
When hiring remote employees, look for ownership, communication skills, coachability, resourcefulness, reliability, and integrity. Technical skills are important, but a remote employee also needs to be able to communicate clearly and work independently.
Ask behavioral questions that reveal how a candidate responds to mistakes, feedback, conflict, unfamiliar tasks, and pressure. Pay attention to whether they take responsibility, explain what they learned, and focus on solutions rather than blaming others.
It depends on the role, but don’t automatically choose experience over potential. For many positions, someone who is highly coachable, curious, responsible, and eager to learn can become a stronger long-term employee than someone with more experience but little willingness to adapt.
Start with the people you hire, then create clear expectations, consistent communication, strong onboarding, regular feedback, opportunities for growth, and leadership that reinforces your values. Remote company culture is built through everyday behavior, not occasional team activities.
One of the biggest mistakes is hiring someone and expecting them to immediately figure everything out without providing clear expectations, training, processes, or support. A great hire still needs a great environment to succeed.
Continue the Conversation
Building a great business starts with building a great team.
But if you’re constantly hiring because you’re overwhelmed, constantly replacing people because they’re not working out, or constantly answering questions that your team should be able to solve themselves, you may not have a hiring problem.
You may have a systems and leadership problem.
That’s fixable.
If you’re looking for talented remote professionals who can become an extension of your business, explore Proximity Outsourcing and see how we help growing businesses build and manage remote teams.
And if your bigger challenge is figuring out how to lead, scale, and build a business that doesn’t depend on you for every decision, learn more about my mentorship programs.
You don’t need to build the perfect team overnight.
You just need to start building the right one.
About the Author
Karla Singson
Karla Singson is an entrepreneur, public speaker, writer, and business mentor who has built and grown multiple physical and online businesses. She is the founder of Proximity Outsourcing and has spent years helping entrepreneurs improve their marketing, sales, leadership, hiring, and business growth.
Karla’s experience building remote teams has shaped her approach to outsourcing: don’t just find someone to complete tasks. Find people who can contribute to the business, develop their skills, and grow alongside the company.
Through her mentorship programs, speaking engagements, and businesses, Karla shares practical lessons from the things that worked—and the mistakes that cost her time and money—so other entrepreneurs can grow with fewer expensive lessons of their own. Learn More About Karla.