Hire the Best Candidate - 10 Personality Traits

Hiring is one of the most challenging aspects of managing an organisation today. With a growing economy, a highly competitive marketplace, and a continual flow of disruptive technologies, finding and retaining top talent is incredibly important. Although hiring guides often focus on how to determine if employees have the right skill sets required to do their jobs effectively; far too often, finding the ideal employee goes beyond ensuring they have the basic skills to do the task at hand. Since employees work in teams or have to collaborate with other employees in most cases, the right skill set isn't enough if the employee’s personalities clash or if the employee isn’t a fit with corporate culture. Moreover, the real challenges of making a poor selection are experienced after you have offered the role, and correcting this mistake can be costly and time consuming.

Though every employee has a unique mix of skills and personality traits, there are common traits ideal employees often possess. Create a highly effective team and avoid making potentially disruptive hires by employing individuals who have a combination of the following 10 personality traits:

1. Communication

Communication is the act of imparting or exchanging information or news between people or places. Not only is communication an important skill to look for, and also cultivate in employees, those with well-rounded interpersonal skills can propel organisations to greater heights. Look for employees with strong communication skills and monitor and observe employee communication habits with the following considerations in mind:

• How well does the individual interpret information and are those inferences correct?
• How well does the individual interact with colleagues and what role do they take on in group situations?
• How does the individual respond when criticised and does the employee actively listen to feedback?
• Can the individual write well, speak well or even improvise well?

2. Initiative

A candidate’s ability to generate insightful ideas usually indicates they are committed to initiating success. Employees that embody a can-do, figure-it-out-or-figure-a-way-around attitude are invaluable. Willingness to learn implies willingness to accept criticism, collaborate and improve. Self-directed employees who anticipate opportunities and envision possibilities will best represent your organisation and its goals in the long run. It may seem counter-intuitive to hire self-starters, however, it's vital that you hire people who can work autonomously and take initiative. If you don't, your employees will constantly expect you to solve problems they encounter. Ways to evaluate initiative in an individual include:

• Assessing whether the individual asks open-ended questions to get insight into thought processes and approaches
• Assessing whether the individual asks about goals (short and long term) and demonstrates consistent results
• Assessing whether the individual demonstrates examples of anticipating and solving problems before they occur

3. Problem Solving

How does your employee approach challenges? When problems become opportunities and momentum is uninterrupted despite threats, businesses evolve. Critical thinking and problem solving ability suggests an employee is motivated by opportunity and will embrace challenges. If employees focus on finding their own solutions to both interpersonal and project-related problems, you don't have to micromanage or referee conflicts between co-workers. Look for employees who exhibit a high degree of creativity, can talk about things they've tried in the past to solve problems and who are committed to sharing solutions rather than just coming to you with problems. Evaluate an employee’s ability to solve problems by determining if:

• The individual understands relationships between pertinent facts and can draw appropriate conclusions
• The individual can act under pressure or is able to make decisions quickly in tough situations

4. Organised

Let’s face it, you’re busy. There is more to accomplish and less time in which to accomplish it. Your organised employees (the planners, effective time allocators, and those who prioritise) tend to accomplish more. Solid employees consolidate productive tasks, and get more done in the same amount of time as a less organised employees. Organisation includes factors like personal appearance, work-life balance, and the ability to manage multiple efforts. In its rawest form, organisation is defined as an efficient and orderly approach to completing tasks. Evaluate the individual on the following:

• Does their appearance, language and general demeanour demonstrate personal accountability?
• Does the individual present awareness and understanding (or interest in learning) about the role of each component of your business?
• Does the individual confirm details, lay out plans and follow up on loose ends?

5. Character-Driven

Character is the virtue of knowing right from wrong, steering clear of wrongdoing and doing what is right, even in the face of pressures and temptations. It is being honest and upright in everything you do. Sadly, good character is rapidly becoming difficult to find. Put yourself in the place of an employer. As an employee, you represent a company. How you conduct and present yourself, interact with customers and fellow employees, and the quality of your work, reflects directly on it. If you had to choose between an employee who was upstanding, trustworthy, honest and truthful in his dealings with others, one who goes above and beyond, and does excellent work, and one who lacks these qualities, this is one of the easiest decisions a manager could make. Employers can assess candidates for honesty and sound character using some of the following lines of thinking:

• Does the individual often embellish or exaggerate findings and events?
• Does the individual participate in gossip or act in a manner, which ends back-door discussions?
• Does the individual relate events or assist co-workers with examples of difficult times or even failure, or is there a constant flow of positivity and perfection?
• Does the individual tolerate inappropriate and hurtful behaviour or do they rise above and have the hard conversation to provide feedback?

6. Flexible

Today's work environment requires people to be flexible and capable of adapting to changing conditions in a productive manner. Workers should be able to respond productively if schedules, priorities or protocols change and should always be able to fill sudden blocks of empty time with activities that benefit the company. When the position requires consumer interaction on any level, understanding a potential candidate's flexibility is crucial to providing a robust customer experience. If a job candidate isn't comfortable with the unknown, he or she won't be a good fit. To test for flexibility, establish a scenario that has a set of rules but introduces a variable that means one of the rules must be broken. Determine if the candidate will break a rule, and if so, by breaking that rule they are still able to produce a favourable result.

7. Optimistic

Optimism is defined as hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something. Upbeat, optimistic people are good for company morale. Optimistic people also tend to get more done, and create an atmosphere of productivity. A great employee takes personal responsibility for everything they do. To be a great employee, you must contribute positively to the organisation, take initiative, give suggestions, or even be the silent hero who solves challenges quietly. That is how a great employee works. They work to help achieve greater goals for the organisation and do so with a positive attitude and demeanour. Ways to evaluate optimism in a candidate include:

• Assessing whether the individual is grateful for their current role even with its inherent obstacles and hardships
• Assessing whether the individual consistently displays positive, resilient, and visionary behaviours
• Assessing whether the individual constantly strives to get better and trusts their own intuition and abilities when carrying out activities
• Assessing whether the individual believes in others and uses positive language to reinforce actions

8. Team-Oriented

When effective teams are in place, the collective product is often greater than the sum of the individual efforts. In many organisations, it is readily apparent which individuals are driven to succeed, but what if those individuals only care about their own successes? An ideal employee wants everyone to succeed and is especially interested in the success of the company. These people happily give credit to others and work as a team, instead of focusing on making themselves shine. Evaluate the individual on the following:

• Does the individual have a desire to achieve consensus and involve others in decision-making?
• Does the individual demonstrate the ability to communicate openly and honestly, caring about fellow team members in the process?
• Does the individual try to understand other points of view when problem solving or making key decisions?

9. Modest

Employees who brag about their achievements or take all the credit can create an unpleasant work environment. Employees who are modest don't rush to take credit, often give others credit in addition to--or instead of--themselves, and may shrug off achievements as just doing their job. These employees make everyone feel good while quietly contributing quality work. Look for candidates who are unassuming in the estimation of their abilities.

10. Respectful

One of the first signs that can make or break strong to dynamic is how team members treat one another. Maintaining a positive rapport with fellow workers is an important sign of the ideal employee. Respect can be shown to co-workers in many ways from wishing them well on projects to appreciating their input on activities. Studies have indicated that co-workers, who are constantly collegial and foster a positive outlook, also show more interest at work. Employees should not only be comfortable working with people who are different than they are, but should also be respectful of co-workers or customers during disagreements. They should be open-minded, refrain from saying negative things about people or groups and actively involve themselves in learning about the people or groups they aren't familiar with. Evaluate the prospective candidates on the following:

• Does the individual display kindness and courteousness?
• Is the individual polite and demonstrate proper etiquette?
• Does the individual respect differing opinion or viewpoints?

Conclusion

Employees who have these traits are rare treasures; they take whatever you throw at them and are able to execute and deliver. Sadly, they don't always realise that these personality traits are marketable, so it's up to you to tease it out of them during the interview process.