The Paychex formula for talent: Hire attitude, teach skills

The founder of Paychex built a high‐performing organization on an unconventional premise at the time: Hire people with the right “attitude” and then teach them the skills to do the job. But rapid growth in the 1990s showed Paychex that it needed a more systematic approach to reliably execute this philosophy throughout its geographically dispersed operations, especially at the important front line of customer service. The resulting solution—one that includes more sophisticated hiring practices, more extensive training and development, and multiple reinforcement mechanisms—still serves the company well today.