How to Find the 'Right Employee'

Laurie Glover, CEO of QSTS, a consulting firm helping companies and individuals move from "good" to great" wrote a recent article titled "How to structure a search for the 'right employee'." Glover explains in her article that "right" is very organization specific and is defined by organizational structure. Often times hiring managers tend to ignore their organizational culture when hiring because it is often hard to describe or even identify. Glover says that when hiring managers ignore organization culture when searching for candidates, they tend to make these mistakes:

1. Try to  hire only the best and brightest. This leads to only hiring based on skill, knowledge and education.  Often times, the best additions are those team members that offer different perspectives and innovative ideas.
2. Searching for similar functional experience.  Glover says, "If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got".
3. Hiring someone who looks and talks just like you.  We are all drawn to people who are like us.  But our or their personality may not be the right fit for the paticular position.

So as hiring managers, how should you structure your search?  In her article, Glover gives a few important tips:

1. Skills and Knowledge - Can they do the job?  Every position has baseline skills and knowledge which are required.  But of everything you look at in a candidate, these are the only two things you can fix.  Through training or educational support, you usually can get the right emloyee up to speed pretty quickly.
2. Motivation -  Will they do the job? You can't motivate any employee, everyone must be self-motivated.  Look for examples of motivation in their resume and in the interview.  What are their accomplishments?  Can they describe overcoming obstacles in their career?
3. Cultural Fit - Can I stand them while they are doing the job (and can they stand us)?  This is the question to answer when searching for the "right" employee.  To better understand your company culture, look at your top performing employees and look for trends in their character that make them successful in your office. 

When hiring managers hire with an emphasis on organization culture, they achieve better team integration, lower turnover rate and ultimately, happier customers and increased profitability.