Personnel

Question: What are the characteristics of a good employee and how do If know a candidate has them?

Answer: Good employees all display qualities such as dependability, punctuality, reliability, initiative and positive attitude. Some other qualities you might look for are flexibility, motivation, organization and being able to complete assigned tasks. The question is, what qualities do you need in your employees? You are not going to train a new employee to be motivated, but you will train them to work a specific piece of machinery or explain your company’s offerings to potential prospects. So hire for the qualities and train for the skills.

The best way to assess whether a candidate has the qualities you are seeking is to ask open-ended questions, provide scenarios and ask them how they would handle them and get them to explain experiences in their life that will demonstrate the qualities you are seeking. As a small business entrepreneur, you have to hire well. You don’t get many chances to hire the right employees. So you need to be focused on the results that the new employee can accomplish for you. Bill Barman recommends five traits that every new hire needs to demonstrate: Aptitude, Intelligence, Attitude, Intensity, and Integrity. He recommends having a second person with you during the interview process to capture what you don’t observe and rate them on these six characteristics 1-5. Then compare your results.

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