Hiring professionals for your team: how to tell if you’ve got the right person in front of you

Hiring professionals is a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. As with any other task, it all starts with setting goals and identifying the most important ones. Let's figure out what to pay attention to when looking for an employee.

Goal #1 — the right hiring professionals

So, the budget has been agreed upon, the department is growing, and the vacant position is no longer available. You move on to the most exciting stage of the first goal: drawing up a portrait of a candidate, describing a vacancy, and choosing a site for posting a vacancy. Before placing the A4 sheet with the requirements, analyze the important points:

• Why do you need this employee? For example, the answer "there is no one to write articles" in the case of a search for a copywriter is too simple and superficial; it will not help you determine whether the person in front of you is the right one. It would be much more correct to answer, "We need a full-time employee who is interested in our industry and understands the technical nuances of production, is ready to discard less priority tasks, and can write an understandable report."

• Which is more important for you — hard or soft skills? Unfortunately, you will be looking for a specialist who possesses all the skills you need to the same high degree for a very, very long time, if not indefinitely. Each candidate may have developed to a greater or lesser extent one of the following characteristics: professional hard skills, good communication skills, or the ability to learn quickly. This leads to the following questions:

1. Are you ready to teach? Training can be different for different types of managerial positions, where familiarity with the structure of the company, employees as subordinates, and quick entry into the field are more important. And for a content junior, you can prepare a small course. Evaluate how much time and resources you are willing to spend on training a beginner;
2.  What problem will the new person solve? A very common mistake when searching for a candidate is the desire to close all the "holes" for a new one for faster entry into the company. However, the people who create the problem are far more valuable than the numerous unfinished tasks scattered around.
3. What kind of wave are you on with your employees? Everyone's character is different. And it is important for you to choose a person who will not cause gossip, conflicts, or misunderstandings in the team. To do this, clearly draw up an emotional portrait of the candidate before inviting all those with suitable skills for an interview. For example, conceit or closeness can be seen already in the cover letter (or its absence).

Goal #2 — search and understanding

After the vacancy is posted, you will proceed to the next stage — an interview and employment. If everything is quite simple with the analysis of the resume, then difficulties may arise with personal communication with a potential employee. To make the interview effective and understandable for both sides, pay attention to the following nuances:

• Willingness to allocate enough time for an interview. The format "I have 15 minutes on Saturday and in the first half of Monday" is certainly an indicator of a busy person. But the desire to work with you is important. If the candidate does not have it at the initial stage, then, most likely, this desire will not be added in the future;

• An adequate response to questions. It is critical to emphasize that the questions should be adequate, relevant, and not directed at the individual. In general, the interview format implies a survey of the candidate, and he should be ready for this;

• A clear and similar thinking vector to your goals. To check this nuance, you can ask the candidate several work-life questions, for example, those that you ask your employees at meetings and planning meetings. This is not a test task, but a great reason to look at a person's ways of thinking and his logic;

• Healthy emotionality. If a candidate has had a hard day, this is not a reason to be sad, answer questions in monosyllables, or ignore messages from HR. If a potential employee exhibits poor emotional intelligence during an interview, be prepared to encounter similar behavior in the workplace in the future.

• Honesty. Fortunately, a lie detector is used in interviews in exceptional cases, but the candidate's willingness to conduct an open dialogue and honestly answer adequate questions is a sign of human maturity.

Unfortunately, "love at first sight" is a book story that is difficult to transfer into real life and work tasks. You will not be able to immediately understand whether this employee is suitable for you or not, whether he will work in your team for more than six months, and whether he will comply with the deadlines for tasks. But openness in communication, a little analytical work, and empathy will help you weed out unsuitable candidates and focus on the best potential colleagues for you.