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By Vincent Malunga | 23 February 2022
When employers look to hire new staff members, they typically have a job description that lists the functional responsibilities that the role requires. They highlight the kind of experience they consider suitable for the role. They even throw in a few attributes. They tend to read something like “Looking for a self-starter with 5 years’ experience in sales and marketing in the industrial equipment sector.”
Now these may indeed be appropriate qualifications for a specific role, but you may have a hundred people applying for the role that “fit” that bill. Human beings are quite complex and highly differentiated even when they all meet a job description requirements. Picking the right candidate for a suitable match remains a conundrum for most interview panels despite the various tried and tested interviewing tools the world of human resources has developed over time.
While it is important to tick the relevant boxes on candidates, there are some key things to look for when picking the final candidate to make an offer to. Many candidates try to prepare well and pander to what they believe the employer is looking for in the successful candidate. Some do this too well! Over and above what the job role description says is required it helps to look out for certain things in the answers that candidates present to questions. This time we explore some of the key ones.
For starters, integrity is an important factor to look for regardless of seniority of position. No matter how educated, experienced or skilled a prospective employee is, if they lack integrity, you do not want them near your organisation. Look out for inconsistencies in their answers to related questions. Often they lie about small and subtle things. The big issues, they prepare for well. Small impromptu things are much harder to prepare answers for. When they lie about small things, they will lie about big things.
The next thing you want to look out for is overall attitude. You want to hire for positive attitude. Positive people overcome small and big challenges because they do not accept defeat. This is a mind-set that you cannot find in a degree or previous experience. They may have been positive previously, but what matters is how positive they feel about the now and the future. Listen out for what attracts them to the role and company that is not scripted to the stated requirements. “I want to prove to myself that I can sell” may indicate more positivity than “I have a strong track record of sales experience.”
Third is flexibility. The modern work place demands flexibility more and more, in terms of role responsibilities. An organisation’s need can change quickly and away from stated functional roles. It is important to find out if a candidate can cope with sudden and drastic changes in responsibility without clinging to the job profile they were hired for. It is important to ask and listen out for willingness to be flexible. This may show in past experience but once again, what is more important is how flexible they are now.
People that have integrity, a positive attitude and flexibility, are most likely to fit in best and perform under varied conditions regardless of what their past says about them. After all, we all have heard the expression “He looked good on paper but didn’t cut it!” So listen for the answer in between the answers!
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This article is also published by the CEO East Africa Magazine submitted by us.
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