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Hiring is Not a One Size Fits All Solution

When assessing potential candidates for an opening within your company, what do you look for first?

Most likely, you check out your applicants’ credentials, their educational and job-related history, and similar “on-paper” facts about each candidate.

While doing so will help you determine whether or not an individual has the necessary skills to complete the tasks they’d be assigned if hired, it doesn’t say much about how these individuals actually will operate when they actually face these tasks.

To ensure that every hire you make is the right fit for the position at hand, you need to dive deeper into each candidate than simply looking at their “on-paper” credentials.


What Role Will They Play?

One of the most important factors to consider when looking to make a new hire is the role in which you’re hiring for.

In other words, you might come across an applicant who is clearly talented and has a wide range of skills…but these skills don’t align with those needed to fulfill the duties of the position.

The problem here is two-fold. Firstly, even if the applicant is a quick learner, there will still be some excess downtime while you get them up to speed with what will be required of them for the specific position. Secondly, if what is expected of the employee is outside of his typical expectations, there will likely be a good amount of friction whenever anything is required of them.

Of course, you definitely want to be sure your new employee is talented and skilled. But, given the choice between an individual that’s extremely talented in a different field, and one that meets the required qualifications and is a good fit for the position, your best bet is to take the latter.

Professional Personality

Whenever you advertise an open position, you’re bound to get dozens – if not hundreds – of applications that, for the most part, look exactly the same.

You’ve probably seen it happy before: immediately upon posting the position, you receive a stack of resumes from applicants who meet the bare minimum in terms of qualifications – and no more.

Again, while these individuals are clearly skilled, intelligent people, their lack of gumption is clearly evident by the fact that they seemingly skated through their education and rarely seem to “go the extra mile” in any aspect of their professional life.

You’ll get a ton of applicants who are qualified on-paper. These individuals, unfortunately, are a dime a dozen. Look for applicants who have gone above and beyond both in their professional and personal life. The ones that volunteer their time to better themselves and the world around them. These are the ones who will make a difference in your organization.

Company Culture

This is a somewhat touchy subject, but it’s also a reality that must be faced at some point.

If, during an interview with an applicant, you get the feeling that they wouldn’t “fit in” with your team – trust this feeling.

On the one hand, if your new hire doesn’t work well with the rest of your team, the entire organization will suffer.

On the other hand, even if they “fake it til they make it,” they still may be truly unhappy on the inside – and will start looking for another job fairly soon.

In either case, you’ll probably end up having to look for another new hire soon enough – resulting in even more downtime for your company.


Make Panther your true workforce management partner.

Panther’s Workforce Solutions team provides numerous inventive ways to help you manage your ever-changing headcount, watch your bottom line and focus on your company’s goals. Each of our staffing services is designed to free your time, improve your output and enhance revenue. Let us help you determine which solution is best for you.

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