When looking for the ideal candidate for your next position, reliability and professionalism should be a top priority. Knowing the job responsibilities isn’t always sufficient; a strong applicant should also possess specific characteristics that align with your company’s culture.
Whether temporary or permanent, your employees represent your company and brand; they are your reputation, which is vital to your business’s success. Professionals typically display a set of key characteristics that applies to any business setting. When hiring talent, consider prioritizing these five characteristics during the interview phase.
Five Professional Qualities to Consider During the Hiring Process
- Accountability: You want employees that you can count on who will take ownership of their actions. Focus on behavioral questions during the interview process to better grasp your candidate’s knowledge of accountability. You should also be very clear about the job role’s expectations and responsibilities.
- Emotional Intelligence (EQ): An ideal employee will be able to develop and sustain trusted connections at work by understanding their own emotions and respecting others’ emotions. This includes their capacity to control their responses and reactions. EQ can be hard to gauge in an interview, but one way to do it is to ask how they work with others.
- Adaptability: This trait is critical in understanding how adaptable your candidate is to change. Ask about a moment when a candidate was prompted to change how they accomplish their work and how they react to the request.
- Attitude: Employee behavior and tone impact work performance, employee morale, and team relationships. A negative attitude can damage your brand or image by influencing clients’ impressions of your organization. Focus on body language, tone, and responses when considering one candidate over another.
- Reliability: Confirm that the candidate understands what the term “reliable” implies in this context. Can they talk about how they hold themselves accountable for their job and how they fulfill deadlines? Be sure to include company expectations for completing tasks or keeping promises to clients.
The Bottom Line
At the end of the day, you want to hire people who will represent your business well and work with others to the benefit of the entire company. The more you know about your own company culture, the more targeted you can be about what you’re looking for in an ideal employee.
Sometimes people interview better than they end up performing, but the hope in prioritizing professionalism is that you’ll have a much better chance of hiring someone whose a great match for the role.
If you know what you’re looking for in a new hire – for a short, long term, or permanent assignment – Arbor Associates can help find the right candidate! With nearly 40 years of experience in the health care staffing industry, Arbor Associates is ready to assist you with your hiring needs. Contact us today!
