How to find the best job candidates

How do you find the best job candidates for your business? At the start of the hiring process, you’re envisioning a candidate who has the perfect combination of skills, experience, personality and work ethic whose references all check out and whose personality matches your company culture. 

It’s important beyond the attributes and hard skills that candidates for your open positions need to have. Looking for the best job candidates – using different means than if you were going through the hiring process on your own – is one of the advantages of working with a staffing agency.

What should you be looking for beyond the resume to find the best job candidates for your company?

Best job candidates have enthusiasm and passion

You can always train someone to perform the skills you need them to, but you can’t teach passion or work ethic. Someone who’s excited about working with your team will be more willing to learn and pick up almost any hard skill than a highly-qualified but unmotivated employee. The best job candidates will seek out the answers they need when they have questions and go above and beyond what’s asked of them. If they’re genuinely enthusiastic about the role in your company, they’ll do everything in their power to learn as much as they can in order to excel. 

Evaluate Their Ability to Learn

There are a few ways you can evaluate a candidate’s growth potential. You can simulate teaching them a new skill during the interview and see how well they’re able to regurgitate the information or perform the skill. You could also ask them questions about the last time they learned something new or pursued a hobby. Learning to rock climb, knit, or edit YouTube videos probably isn’t useful in your company, but it’s certainly indicative of their passion and their ability to learn.

Check References

The candidate’s references will be a huge asset as you complete your hiring process, especially if you’re looking for someone who might not be a perfect fit on paper. Former employers, co-workers, professors, and mentors can all give you insight about the candidate’s ability to learn, how hard they work, how punctual they are and how well they might excel in your company.

Invest Your Resources

If you have to devote additional resources to training new employees, it’s important to be investing those resources in candidates who are professional and motivated. When training new employees on your own, you won’t have to break bad habits that experienced candidates may have picked up along the way. Instead, as long as you hire someone who’s willing to learn, you can train them to adhere to your company procedures and policies.

There will be room for them to improve and grow as a professional, and they’re likely to feel more loyal since you were willing to give them a chance. While the perfect candidate might not be available when you need to make a hiring decision, it’s important to find the right traits and characteristics that are non-negotiable when reviewing potential employees in the hiring process.

Looking for a staffing solution that meets your business’s requirements? Contact ICR Staffing Services today.