A company’s success relies on having great people working for them. It is in the best interest of every business person out there to hire extraordinary employees. However, hiring managers often find difficulty finding such employees. In this article, we’ll give you a few tips and tricks to fill your company with the best of the best people in your industry.
1. Review Your Current Employees
You can hire the most talented person in the world, and there is still a chance that they might not be the “extraordinary employee” that you are looking for. Before you try to find such people to work for you, consider your own working environment first.
The best thing to do is to study your current best employees. Understand what makes them rise among their peers in your office. Determine their special characteristics and identify why they excel amongst others. This can reveal one important factor: what type of people would stand out in your company.
2. Define Success Metrics For “Extraordinary Employee”
Once you have a full understanding of your own working environment, it’s time to visualize your ideal employee. Based on the skills and characteristics you have determined in the previous step, create a profile of what will be the best employee for your company.
Consider Seeking Resiliency as A Trait
A lot of managers fire employees over simple mistakes. However, studies actually show that taking the time to help the employee correct their mistakes and learn from them is better than finding someone else. People who have overcome mistakes are more likely to be resilient in a workplace setting.
This is an important trait for your employees. Things are not always going to be smooth. Problems arise, and you need someone who knows how to navigate a tricky situation.
When in an interview, probe for their career experience. Have they encountered major disappointments? How did they overcome these disappointments? These questions can show you how they handle problems and their ability to move forward.
Do not Confuse Success with Motivation
A successful person does not mean that they are motivated. Many factors affect motivation, and it isn’t easy to judge it solely by looking at someone’s success. The people around them can be a huge contributor to their success, and without those people, they might not perform as well.
This is one of the biggest problems that hiring managers create. Experience can be a misleading factor. Getting to know the applicant through the interview is a much important factor over a resume. Besides, a new graduate or even someone with zero experience could be better for the job if taught properly.
Attitude Before Experience
As mentioned previously, someone’s experience will not automatically tell your hiring manager if they are the best fit for the job. A resume can only tell the basic points of someone’s career. Furthermore, it’s no secret that resumes are created to present someone in the best light possible.
When you interview someone, take note of how they hold themselves. Are they confident that they are the best candidate for the job? Are there any red flags in their attitude? Do not focus on someone’s past career. Instead, focus on the attitude and determine if they will be an excellent employee in your company.
3. Always Have Open for Job Interviews
Even if you have no job openings, it’s still best to interview candidates all the time. Finding an extraordinary employee when you are under time pressure to replace someone who left your company is hard-most of the time even impossible. But if you always interview job applicants, you will have a great candidate as soon as a spot opens.
A combination of social networking and email lists can help you get in touch with your best candidates. Asking them during the interview about their earliest available date is also important so that you can consider their timeline.
4. Ask Questions That Reveal Character
A good resume can only bring someone so far. The interview is where the applicant’s identity is revealed. Here is where a hiring manager should gauge if the person is fit for the job that they are supposed to fill in.
Steer Clear from The Usual Questions
In the old days, hiring managers would ask simple questions like, “What is your weakness?” or “What is your biggest achievement?” and determine if the person is fit for the company with their answers. While it was effective back then, job candidates are now prepared to answer these questions.
Asking the usual questions will usually give you a general safe answer that they have already searched for on the web. It’s better to stick to questions that will check their suitability to the company.
Myers & Briggs Personality Type
A lot of debate is still ongoing on the Myers & Briggs personality type test, but many hiring managers are using them to check someone’s basic characteristics. There’s an in-depth survey consisting of 60 questions, but simpler ones still give pretty accurate results.
1. Get to know their energy (introverts or extroverts)
2. Check how they gather information (five senses or intuition)
3. Understand how they make decisions (thinkers or feelers)
4. Know their planning methods (judgers or perceivers)
Depending on the type of job, you’ll want to get someone with a certain personality. For example, if there’s a lot of team effort or client meetings involved, you should lean towards extroverts. If you have a structured company, it is best to go for Judgers as they are more often organized and structured. However, if your working environment is fast-paced, go for Perceivers as they can adapt quickly to changes.
5. Review Real Reference
When calling references, you might hear the same traditional positive responses. While these answers can be true, the references might simply be polite. As a general rule, only hire employees when their references say that you’d be crazy not to hire them. It usually means that the candidate has left a strong positive impression that makes the reference sure that the candidate is extraordinary.
You should also research or locate the references yourself. This can get you a more realistic idea of how the candidate works in a company.
