How to Recognize Potential Candidates

4 June 2013
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Category Hiring
4 June 2013, Comments 0

Head and shoulder shot of five serious co-workersMany employers fall into the trap of hiring employees who are not in any way helpful to the company. This usually occurs in the recruitment or selection process when applicants would compete in nailing the job that they want. The recruitment process is a very crucial step in the selection of employees. So, the recruitment team has to be skilled enough in selecting the individuals who deserve the job.

Every employer would want to hire only good employees. This pertains to those who have the skills, the experience, and the right kind of attitude. It can be a little difficult to spot for qualified candidates, but proper screening of applicants will do the trick. Job applicants are wiser these days when job hunting. An employer that does not know how to identify the potential individuals who can make good employees may end up choosing the wrong ones.

The ways to recognize good employees are all done during the screening and selection process. So, what are the means to identify a good from a bad candidate for the job?

Background Check

Conducting a background check is one of the sure means in knowing that the individual can become a good employee or not. This is a very crucial step, but some companies seem to skip this part of the recruitment process. A background check is normally done once the list of applicants have been screened, when all that is left are those who are potential candidates who have qualified the exams, skills needed, and the experience.

In doing a background check, the employer contacts the previous company of the applicant or calls the character references of the candidate for verification of information and details found on the resume. Some of the important things to ask are the reason for resigning, achievements made, any sanctions incurred, length of service, job role or function, and even personality. Although the answers may be given out during the applicant interview, an employer can never be so sure of the validity of the information until it is backed up by confirmed answers from the background check.

Manner of Answering during Interview

Here is another way to spot a good employee in the future: the manner of answering and giving out responses during interview. The behavioral questioning technique works best to find out who is the most qualified candidate. Because this type of interview technique does not require memorized answers to knowledge-based questions, the candidate must be checked for consistency of responses to behavioral questions.

The interviewer must be smart enough to rephrase questions or tailor them in a way that would make the questions sound different but are actually just modified to test if the individual still gives out a similar response to what was previously said. Interviewers must be adept at reading between the lines or deciphering the message behind what was said.

Aside from consistency of responses, the candidate who also turns every negative answer into a positive one can be a potential candidate. This only goes to show that the person is a positive thinker. This is very common when asking personal questions that involve their biggest mistakes or problems in life.

Personality Test

A personality test is another surefire way to find out who has a pleasing personality and who has an undesirable one. Then again, some companies miss to give this out during the recruitment process. Personality tests are a way of assessing the person’s mental and emotional capacities. These tests are objectively gauged and are proven to be very effective in identifying an individual’s personality.

It is important that a good employee should also have a good personality. The personality test will give the employer an idea of how well the candidate deals with pressure, socializes with colleagues, how well the person deals with problems and issues, the flexibility or adaptability of the person, and many other aspects of personality.

Given these simple means in recognizing a potential candidate who can make a good employee, the company will get a slim chance of hiring the wrong person for the job. Apart from skills and experience, the good employee must also be measured on attitude and personality in order to be considered an asset in the company.