When you hire a new employee, you’re often filling an urgent staffing need. It can be tempting to rush through the process in order to get back to business as usual. Regrettably, this hastiness may result in bad hires. Bad hires can lead to loss of time and money (if you hire someone who isn’t right for the job) or even lawsuits (if you hire someone who endangers your other employees). Fortunately, bad hires can be avoided if you access candidates’ self-awareness, compatibility and desire in addition to their professional qualifications and criminal background.
According to the professionals at Monster.com, the best job candidates are self-aware. They understand where they’ve been and where they want to go with their careers. They are able to articulate the ways in which they can contribute to the success of your company. Potential questions to ask that will help you assess a candidate’s self-awareness include:
• Describe the progression of your career from college to your current (or last) position?
• What would your current (or last) employer say about your potential for success within this career?
• What do you believe makes you stand out from others in this industry?
While it’s ultimately beneficial to like the person you hire, human resources professionals advise that you’ll make the best hires when you look past likeability and access the compatibility of the potential employee with the culture of the role they need to fill. Potential questions to ask that will help you access a candidate’s compatibility include:
• Describe your ideal role. How much structure is involved? How much direction or feedback would you receive from your supervisor each day?
• How do you handle constructive criticism?
• Describe your ideal work pace. Do you prefer to take things slow, work steadily or rush?
People work for money. However, the best hire is going to be one who wants to work for you for reasons in addition to a steady paycheck. Hiring professionals refer to it as the desire factor. It is often indicated by the amount of knowledge a candidate has gathered regarding your company and business. Some questions that may help you access the desire factor of the candidates you interview include:
• What do you know about our organization?
• What do you feel makes this company stand out from our competitors?
• Why do you want to work here?
Once you’ve selected a candidate or candidates who are self-aware, compatible with the position and truly desire to be part of your company, you can move on to verifying their professional qualifications with a thorough past employment reference check. You can also protect yourself from potential negligent hiring lawsuits by contracting Advanced Research Systems to conduct a comprehensive background screening. An ARS criminal records background check, including county-wide, state and federal records going back seven years, is the final step to ensuring you’re making the very best hiring decision.
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