When you have any key position open in your organization, you would want to fill it as soon as possible with the best person you can find. When you prepare to interview the potential employees, however, it is essential to look beyond the technical skills of each candidate. What are the traits to look in a candidate while hiring?
While a hard skill is technical know-how for a particular job, there are certain “soft skills” that refers to a group of harder to measure personal qualities and social attributes that make someone a strong employee.
The fact is that many workers have the necessary degrees, skills, and knowledge to do a job, but, after they are hired, they may turn out to be all wrong for the positions for which they were hired. Some of these hires who look so good on paper can be unmotivated, dishonest or just plain hard to get along with.
Here are 5 must-have traits to look in a candidate while hiring:
1. Having an original point of view of his own:
The phrases “thinking out of the box” or “drawing outside the lines” have been used to the point out this quality. Ability to think independently and having an original point of view is indeed a highly valued soft skill in today’s job market.
Managers are looking for versatile team members who can apply their original judgements and have their own solution to solve unexpected problems with ease and confidence that comes up to a variety of different situations.
2. Positive and Energetic:
A positive attitude and energetic nature are qualities closely linked with business professionalism. Even if you are hiring for an entry-level job or a volunteer position, you want someone who is upbeat and excited about working with your organization.
When a candidate is enthusiastic about the job, it carries over into the workplace and into job performance. Positive and energetic nature are the traits you must look in a candidate while hiring.
3. Goal Focused:
A candidate who has his goals set in life and is always focused to achieve the same through the means of his career is a candidate who has the unmistakable trait of becoming a good leader.
A good employee is someone who sees his/her new position as a challenge. You will get the best job performance from such an individual who sees the new job as a fulfillment of a goal rather than as just as the means to a paycheck or as another listing on a resume.
So, check whether the candidate is goal focused or not while hiring – this is one of the most important traits to look in a candidate while hiring.
4. Cultural Fit:
Though cultural diversity is a positive aspect of an organization, you should judge a candidate if she/he would be a cultural fit for your organization.
If the candidate fails to fit in the culture of your organization, the person will be a fish out of the water and slowly this would be a de-growing factor both for your organization and the candidate.
5. Openness to Learn:
The only employees who are sustainable in the phases of organizational reengineering are the employees who are open and eager to learn new things and have the adaptability to change.
Openness to learn is one of the most important traits to look in a candidate while hiring. If the candidate shows a trait of absorbing new skills easily and always keeps updating his/her skills during the job interview – that is the potential sign that the candidate will climb up the ladder in future and help in organizational growth.
Sayak takes care of both recruitments and assessment projects of The HR Monks team. He loves helping people finding their dream job.
He started his journey in career leaving the shores of Waiting for Godot and found The HR Monks a better place, where he can change the lives of people by helping them achieve their dreams.
He has been to quite a fewer place across India and loves to travel. He loves two books, in particular, one Siddhartha by Herman Hesse and the other The Shift by Dr. Wayne Dyer.