When hiring new employees, it´s important to have clear in advance what you´re looking for. You might think that´s obvious because you created a job posting with an elaborate description of the job and the experience required to qualify for it. So of course, you have clear what you´re looking for, right? Well, have you also thought about the qualities that the new employee should have in order to be a good fit? Do you have clear what you´re looking for beyond experience and specific job skills? This is at least as important as hard skills that are required to do the job, because even if the person is technically able to do the job shouldn´t he or she also be pleasant to work with and work according to certain guidelines that are important to the company? Don´t fall in this common pitfall when hiring new employees and make sure you also have clear what qualities you are looking for.
Below you can find 7 qualities that in our opinion every new employee should have, you can use this list as your base and add qualities that you consider important.
Culturally fit
Maybe the most important quality is whether the new employee is culturally a good fit or not. An employee can have the greatest resume and have amazing hard and soft skills but if they are not a fit with your company´s culture it is likely going to fail. For example, if you´re a start-up and you´re hiring a new employee that only has experience working for corporates this might be a challenge for both size since the working culture can have huge differences.
Reliable
Does the employee do what she or he said they would do and does he or she follow instructions? In other words, are they reliable? Reliability is very important quality to have because you simply don´t want employees in your team that are not reliable. This will reflect badly on your business, both towards internal as towards external clients.
Driven
Is the new employee driven to succeed? Are they willing to go the extra mile to get great results? A driven employee doesn´t have to be constantly pushed by their superior to get their work done, they are self-motivated and persistent to complete their tasks.
Team player
Can the new employee work well with others? Almost all companies have and work in teams, so it´s essential that your new employee not only performs good as an individual contributor but also as part of the bigger team.
Eager to learn
Is the employee happy to learn new things and to achieve greater results? Evaluating their proactivity and eagerness during an interview should never be forgotten because you want to know what you´re hiring. Eager to succeed and proactive in taking actions to do so versus passive and happy with the status quo, what do you prefer?
Good communicator
Can the new employee communicate well with others? Think about writing and speaking skills in for example explaining their work to others, talking to clients, getting important information from other departments in the company etc.
Willing to change
Does the new employee hang a lot on status quo or are they willing to change if the situation requires so? In today´s challenging economic environment change is the only constant for most companies and your employees should be able to deal with this in a good manner. This goes hand in hand with flexibility and the adaptability to new circumstances.
Apart from this list of 7 must-have qualities, what other qualities do you seek for in a new employee?