When it comes to hiring employees, there are certain qualities that employers should look for in order to ensure they are making the best decision. Trust, ability to work in a team, cognitive ability, scrupulosity, awareness, resilience, emotional intelligence, hard work, and willingness to learn are all important qualities to consider when hiring someone. Trust is an essential quality for any employee. A self-confident employee will often be productive as well.
Employers should know that the people they hire can expand and change as their companies do. Cognitive ability is the key when it comes to predicting job performance in the real world. Cognitive ability can be described as “the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, understand complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience” and is essential for learning and problem solving in the workplace. Cognitive ability is measured by aptitude tests which usually include tests of verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning, and inductive (logical) reasoning.
This combination of tests will provide a general measure of general cognitive ability which is more useful for predicting the quality of hiring than any specific aptitude on an individual basis. Scrupulosity is an important personality trait that underpins how focused, diligent, obedient and thorough people are. It is often included in hiring criteria as “work ethic” and “attention to detail” and both concepts are well reflected in the personality trait of conscience. Awareness is the trait to focus on when looking for the qualities of a productive employee and is best measured by personality questionnaires designed according to the Big Five Personality Model.
Resilience has important implications for both performance and well-being in the workplace and allows employees to cope with stress and pressure. It also ensures that employees remain focused and energetic in the face of obstacles or setbacks. Resilience is particularly important in high-pressure positions such as management, sales or customer service professions. Emotional intelligence is a person's ability to recognize, understand and interpret the emotions of other people and within themselves.
It has enormous implications both for interpersonal interaction and for the internal regulation of emotions. Highly emotionally intelligent employees will work better with their colleagues, customers, stakeholders and managers helping to avoid conflict and build strong relationships. Emotional intelligence is best measured by personality questionnaires or evaluations designed specifically to measure emotional intelligence. Hard work is a person's level of drive, motivation, and tenacity when striving to achieve accomplishments.
Industriousness is closely related to conscientiousness but has more to do with motivational drive than organization. It is an essential hiring criterion in any position that involves measurable goals, quotas or performance results. Willingness and ultimately the ability to learn are very important qualities of a good employee not only for learning new hard skills but also for growing as a professional and as a person. Knowing these important qualities to look for in an employee means you have a better chance of hiring the best people and avoiding the frightening costs of making a bad hire.