When you’re looking for someone to fill a position in your company, this isn’t like looking for a new part to replace a faulty component in a machine. Someone that has all the qualifications to do the job you want is an important piece of the puzzle, but that’s not the entire picture. When it comes to hiring, there many things you need to keep in mind when you’re looking at finding just the right person. These are just a few of the important elements you need to keep in your mind when you’re looking at candidates.
Background
For employees this may be a curse of the digital age, but for employers, it’s a blessing. Thanks to social media and other elements of the Internet, the majority of people leave a very large, very trackable footprint of who they are and what they do, and many don’t bother to hide this.
Of course, for many people, there’s no need to hide anything. A quick check of a person’s Facebook or Twitter page may simply leave you with the impression that this is an interesting, affable person who says amusing things or takes nice photos. But some people will leave large warning signs about what they’re capable of, such as tourist photos with captions loudly proclaiming what they were up to when they should have working on a business trip, or racist, sexist or other prejudicial comments that make it clear they would be a bad fit in your company.
Culture
The importance of this cannot be stressed enough. Having the right set of skills is important, but in many ways, having the right kind of fit for your company’s culture may be even more important. Someone with a lack of experience can always be trained, but if he or she fits with the culture of your company, that means a harmonious fit that can only make your company stronger once the person has settled in.
On the other hand, if you promote a casual, laid back atmosphere and the person is very serious and uncommunicative, this will impact work. Conversely, if your company is more serious and ambitious and the new hire is more of an easygoing, sociable butterfly that can provide fantastic work, but can multi-task well enough to converse with other employees and bring down their productivity, this is also a bad fit.
Finding someone that can do the job is important. But just as important is someone that can fit in with what you’ve already got and ensure that it only gets better. Otherwise, you may need to part ways and continue the search once more, wasting even more time and effort.
