5 Things to Look for When Hiring Employees

You have set up a great business plan, chosen your location, and your finances are all set.  All you are missing is a productive and fast-paced team to make all of your ideas come to life.  Then, you’ll be open for business!

  >>Attitude:

Attitude is one of the most important qualities to look for in employees because they represent your company when interacting with clients, vendors, and associates.  A person with positive energy and enthusiasm is best for handling stressful situations and finding solutions.  You don’t want someone with a negative attitude and a tendency to make excuses for why things can’t get done – this kind of energy makes a situation worse and is definitely not what you want in your company.  Your business would be better served by people who embrace challenges and are dedicated to solving problems.

  >>Intelligence:

Make sure your candidates are qualified for the position.  Identify the skills you need in order to run your business and look for those skills during interviews.  If you’re hiring recent graduates, make sure their grade point averages are decent and that they have taken courses related to what you do as a company.  Nowadays, many companies state that a Bachelor’s degree is the minimum requirement, and they actually prefer more education.  While you don’t have to shoot for MBA students, do make sure that you are hiring qualified individuals and not just settling for anyone.

  >>Communication:

Your employees should know how to articulate themselves clearly and professionally.  Communication skills are important even if your employees won’t always interact with clients.  If your business is to succeed, internal communication is extremely important.  Your employees should be able to tell you when they don’t understand something, especially when you are communicating your goals for the company. This is would be the part when during your interview with them; you should ask questions about how they would handle a situation with a client so you can pay special attention to the way they would speak to a client.

  >>Teamwork:

            In today’s workplace most jobs are being done in a team environment. Being able to work appropriately and efficiently with others is very important to meet the satisfaction of the business and its clients. A good employee would need to understand the different personalities they would be dealing with in a group dynamic such as the jokester, leader, and cheerleader. Having creative differences cannot be avoided but how well a person deals with these situations determines the strength in their skills as a team player.

  >>Technology:

It’s nearly impossible to enter a career in todays’ fast pace world without any knowledge of software programs such as Microsoft’s Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. These are some basic necessities but each profession has their own such as QuickBooks for accounting and administrative jobs. Some other programs used in office environments is 37Signals, a web application that helps small businesses stay organized with tasks and communicate with each other when not physically near one another. Learning the newest programs will make an employee stand out ahead of their
opponents.