When interviewing candidates, what's more important to you: values or skills?

I tend to agree with Mel in principle. Skills are typically much easier to teach and replace than values that are aligned with your organization.The data and my experience indicates skills don't create engagement, values alignment does.High engagement leads to higher levels of individual and organizational performance. Building alignment in is much easier than trying to "bolt it on".

I see cultural fit as the single most important factor in hiring decisions, and personal and professional values certainly tie into this. While certain skills are going to be the ante to even be considered, if a candidate is not going to fit the culture of the company and department, even the most superior skills will not make them successful in the long run.

That's a tough one... Given a choice, I'd rather go for values or work ethics. Anyone can learn a skill or two, but values make a good employee great, when that person take a stand and the courage to face many challenges at work. Someone said that '..Many of the great achievements of the world were accomplished by tired and discouraged men who kept on working.' - and it's values that kept these men persistent.. 'til they fulfill their dreams.

Values are what drives the individual.

Skills are the tools they use to perform tasks.

While you can teach both, if someone does not have the "right" values, you will probably never turn them into a successful employee.

I have taken people from vastly different educational and experiential backgrounds who had the right values and ethics, and turned them into outstanding business and system analysts. I have seen some very well trained MBA's who were not worth a nickel because they did not have the right values to match their skills.

For me, it is values and ethics, first and foremost. Skills are a distant second.

So far its unanimous. I, too, agree that values are more important than skills alone. When hiring on new virtual workers I always offer a one-word "test" to see if they will read the entire listing before responding. If they do not include the phrase then I decline their proposal without even considering their profiles or skills. A rushed response to my listing shows they will not take the time that my clients deserve in order to ensure a good customer experience.

Good mix of both values (ethics) and skills is required. But i will place more importance on values (good personal and business ethics).

I see cultural fit as the single most important factor in hiring decisions, and personal and professional values certainly tie into this. While certain skills are going to be the ante to even be considered, if a candidate is not going to fit the culture of the company and department, even the most superior skills will not make them successful in the long run.