Hiring people can be an expensive and time consuming process. It has been reported that it can cost an employer £3000 and 27.5 days just to hire a new employee. However, hiring the right people is the backbone of any successful business. Therefore, every business must craft an effective, consistent, and incisive hiring procedure in order to get the very best candidates for the roles that they need.
Knowing what to look out for in a candidate is a vital part of this process. Below is a list of 3 key things to look out for when potentially making a new hire.
Best Fit
Finding a candidate that will “fit” within your company is more than just a matter of assessing whether they meet the technical requirements for the role (although this is important). It is also a matter of figuring out whether they will fit in the workplace culture that you have fostered.
This is often a matter of assessing personality as well as technical skills. Are they a team player? Are they personable? Are they able to cope under pressure? These questions, ones that go beyond the merely technical, will help assess the suitability of a candidate for your role.
Remember that employees that feel they “fit” within the workplace are more likely to be productive, retain a sense of loyalty, and rise within the company that they work for.
Ability to Work as a Team
In any job, even if it involves long hours of coding at a desk , there will be a degree of teamwork needed. There are almost no instances of a job role that does not involve some team-based coordination to fulfill projects and reach targets. It is therefore essential that any new hire is able to work as a team.
This ability has many facets that must be assessed at the interview stage. The candidate must be personable, effective at person-to-person communication, and be able to fit within the workplace environment (see above). The candidate must be excellent at getting their message across in an effective and easily interpretable manner, while retaining good social skills.
Often interviewers use group interviews to assess team working ability. This is a good indication of the candidate’s communication and social skills. However, team working ability can be assessed in more subtle ways that can emerge from a one-to-one interview.
Long Term Potential
This is a more subtle aspect of hiring that can often be overlooked when hiring a new candidate. You may have a lot of qualified candidates for your role that can fulfill the technical aspects of the role. However, it is important to consider long term potential when making a hire.
What does this mean? It is essentially looking for whether your candidate was promoted in the last company they worked for, or if they held a number of different positions within that company. It is looking for an advanced degree to show willingness, and enthusiasm, to learn.
The candidate should show not only technical skills, but ambition. Ambition in an employee can often mean that they not only do their best in the position, but work to find ways to improve the work that they do. It will also mean that they are more likely to be able to rise to the challenge if a difficult project presents itself, or if they are offered a more senior role.
There are many indicators of long term potential that should be considered to ensure that you are making a hire that will last, and will be able to potentially serve several different roles within your company.