When hiring new employees, interviewers often make the mistake of focusing a lot on past experience and the knowledge that the candidate has. However, whatever your business does, what the candidate knows today is not the most relevant factor to see whether this potential employee will be a great hiring decision. Information can be taught, but personality can´t. Therefore, try to focus on personality traits to determine whether this candidate will be a great fit for your company and will be able to make a real contribution.
When interviewing, focus on these 8 personality traits and use a simple rating system to evaluate the candidate on each of them. Easy does it!
- Attitude
If the candidate demonstrates that he or she hardly gives up when aiming to achieve something, that´s someone you want on your team! How does the candidate deal with problems? Do they see themselves as the victim of the problem or do they see the problem as a challenge that they will tackle right away? The attitude of a candidate will tell you a lot about what kind of employee he or she will be. 
- Potential
Instead of looking for past performance in your field, why not search for someone who has great potential? Someone that has talent, is eager to learn and has great skills to add to your business.
- Creative Intelligence
A basic level of intelligence is a must for any type of job. But try to figure out if the candidate is also creatively intelligent. Can the person come up with a creative solution when facing a difficult situation? Can they work around or through a problem?
- Autonomous
Unless you love micromanaging you are going to need an employee that doesn´t need continuous hand-holding to get the job done. You need someone you can trust with the tasks you delegate to him / her and someone that isn´t too dependent on the big boss being able to guide them through the tasks.
- Hardworking
Great results usually don´t come in easily and you probably don´t need employees that are looking for a 9-to-5 gig. If the candidate can demonstrate that they are hardworking and also love to work hard for a company that they´re passionate about, you should definitely take that into account in making the hiring decision.
- Cultural Fit
There are many great potential employees out there but are they also a great fit with your business? Do they share the values of your company? Can they find themselves in the ways of working? Cultural fit is of crucial importance when making a hiring decision because although a candidate might be a great candidate on paper if they´re not a good cultural fit, you are going to regret the decision of hiring him or her.
- Action-oriented
You want proactive people on your team right? So make it a must to check with potential employees whether they get into action-mode after observing a problem or getting a task. A reactive person will cost you much more time.
- Honest
Is the candidate honest and transparent about their behavior and motives? Dishonest employees are not only bad for work atmosphere but will also influence team results so it´s obviously best to avoid hiring these.
Want an easy way to make sure potential employees are being checked for these 8 traits? Just make a simple checklist with a 3-point scale for these and give this checklist to every person interviewing the potential employee. After all the interviews combine and discuss the checklist to get an average score for each trait and make your decision based on these. And remember, information can be taught but personality is usually a given!
