How to choose the right person

Many employers would argue that it is impossible to know how a prospect employee will perform once he or she is employed, that’s what the probation period is for isn’t it? Hiring a new employee is much more complex than, “tell me about yourself” and “what do you know about our company?”. These are text book questions and any individual with internet explorer can obtain thousands of different ways to properly answer them (Green, 2015).

My father always says: “If you are not planning on doing it right, rather leave it.” Employers have become very laid back in their approach to interviewing and appointing the “right” candidate. There’s much more to it than that, and it’s about time that employers put more effort in to the hiring process and realise what to really look for when hiring personnel, and essentially what they can avoid by doing so.

Hiring the wrong person can have financial as well as emotional consequences for a business and its employees. Primarily companies are in business to make profit and it should be in the best interest of every employee to contribute towards this goal, but that is an ideal rather than reality. Customer retention should be at the top of every companies’ priority list and one which the wrong employee could damage severely. It is thus of upmost importance that every employee has that same goal towards retaining customers (Harris, 2016). Furthermore, there is financial implications combined with losing customers, an element that every business works hard to avoid. The wrong employee also affects the people working around them, which contributes further damages to the company. Finally, combining all the above mentioned elements has a direct influence on the overall reputation of the company. One employee can ruin the general image a customer has of a company. A customer that has a bad experience with a company tends to spread negative word-of-mouth a lot faster than an individual having a good one (Deleon, 2015).

Hiring the right person can easily be accomplished by utilising the appropriate elements attached to a good, efficient employee. These elements comprise of employee drive, purpose and passion. Seeking these elements in a potential prospect can contribute to making the appropriate employment decision and contribute to the profitability of the employee.

Drive

According to the Cambridge Dictionary (2014) “drive” is a planned attempt to achieve a specific goal. A planned attempt every employee should exert towards his or her company. It should be in every prospects nature to have the inner passion and urge to contribute to the company in a financial manner, whether the urge is supplemented by financial or emotional gain. Employee drive is important because it shows that an employee wants to work for the company, it resembles that the employee wants to constantly improve and achieve, representing a nature of efficiency and effectiveness. The desire to constantly be better at what one does will have a favourable outcome for both the employee and the company. It’s like karma, an employee giving it their all and ensuring that their work is of the best quality will reap the rewards and be eligible for promotion opportunities. Also it develops a sense of pride in the work one does and essentially satisfaction with what one achieves.

Purpose

Purpose can be defined as the intention to why a person does or creates something, or the reason for something’s existence (Oxford Dictionaries, 2016). This might just be the most important element contributing to a good employee. An employee with a purpose has direction and motivation, constantly working to improve and reach his/her goals at whatever cost. Purpose allows you to focus and make good decisions, constantly resembling a reminder of where one wants to be and what one wants to achieve. Furthermore, purpose provides a sense of fulfilment and accomplishment, it helps manage an individual’s emotions and steer them to success and happiness. It is important that an employee has a purpose, the urge to achieve something, and feel good about doing it (Marshall, 2012). Having a purpose will allow an employee to discover opportunities, assist in making the right decisions and fully take advantage of them. Finally, the best for last, purpose ensures that an employee gets rid of bad habits and develop good ones (Clement, 2013).

Passion

According to the Macmillan Dictionary (2016) passion is a very powerful feeling for doing something. Discovering employee passion in a prospect should be crucial to any employer. It gives an indication of how the employee will perform and what his mind-set will be towards his work and the company in general. A passionate employee is generally energetic, influencing the people around them in a positive way, allowing for healthy competition, improving and achieving success as a result of their mind-set towards everything they work on. Passion also allows for more opportunities to come an employee’s way, it tends to impress management and usually ends up favourable for both parties (Black, 2011). Furthermore, passionate employees tend to exert a lot more effort towards their work, usually the first in and the last to leave. Finally passionate people are positive about their work, the direction they are heading in and they tend to know where they would like to end up (Hudson, 2014).

Conclusion

These elements are crucial to a successful employment process and it is worth looking in to when considering potential prospects. Truly seek out good workers with the right set of characteristics and positive mind-set required for your specific industry. It is more than just a simple interview, it is a step in acquiring a company asset. As we all know, your employees are your company.

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