When you're searching for top talent who can build on your team's success or fill in the gaps to improve on inefficiencies, there's no way of determining if you'll make the right choice. Only their time on the job will reveal if they'll live up to your expectations and be a good fit for the company.
When hiring managers, it’s best to first identify what their short- and long-term goals are for the role as it relates to alignment with the culture of the business and if they will meet the business’s needs. To help leaders navigate the hiring process for prospective managers and offer better insight into your latest new hires onboarding, 13 members of Forbes Human Resources Council share signs to look out for when you're gauging a candidate's true interest and fit within your organization.
1. They Exude Collaborative Curiosity
Be open-minded and remember that not all candidates check the same boxes. So it's important to focus on the right indicators given the employee's role, geography, experience and other key factors. Great innovation and teamwork come by building teams with diverse skills and backgrounds. A few of the early behaviors we look for are strong collaboration and a willingness to ask questions. - Sundararajan Narayanan, Virtusa
2. They Are Interested In The Company's Growth
There are several initial indicators that an HR leader could use to determine if they've made the right hiring decision. Among them would be whether the new employee expressed interest in deepening their knowledge of the organization. Any inquiries about future development opportunities and their understanding of how their role aids in the attainment of organizational goals are good signs. Milpha Blamo, The Minneapolis Foundation
3. They Ask The Right Questions
During the initial 100-day plan, the employee will do their best as they are cognizant that they are under watch. In my personal view, HR leaders should interact with the respective manager by asking a few quick questions and the responses for these questions shall reveal the chances of success. Also, look at what kind of questions the new employee is asking. What are the colleagues saying about the new employee? - Prakash Raichur, Taghleef Industries
4. They Understand The Business And Key Priorities
Clarity about the role and expected impact and key performance indicators that reflect what success looks like in the role presents a good starting point. Each organization has its own set of success factors that must be incorporated into the search. Understanding the business and key priorities is essential in making a final hiring decision. - Loren Rosario-Maldonado, Claro Enterprise Solutions, Inc.
5. They Are Career-Minded Talent is multi-faceted and hiring with the myopic view of role profile alignment alone is not ideal. You have made the right hiring decision when talent is hired with a future outlook and the talent also realizes how they can build a career within the organization. The proof of the pudding is when they see their vision coming to life to create a win-win scenario for themselves and the organization. - Rohit Manucha, SIH AGH 6. Their Metrics Add Up An HR leader may determine if they've made the right hiring decision through a combination of quantitative (e.g., financial or performance-based) and qualitative (e.g., individualized or crowdsourced feedback) metrics measuring their performance outputs. Each type of metric provides its own value; however, when combined, the two paint a more complete picture for new hires' ROI across a myriad of key areas. - Dr. Timothy J. Giardino, BMC Software 7. They Have Good Performance Levels One very effective way is establishing a quality of hire (QOH) metric. This metric will encompass time to productivity, tenure, performance over time and other relevant data points. Also, QOH is not just for your talent acquisition team as it can give an HR leader and their executive team broader insight into whether you have the right people in place and if your managers are hiring successfully. - Katya Daniel, Golden Hippo 8. They Commit And Contribute To The Company Culture You know you've made the right hiring decision when there is a great return on investment. When an HR leader goes beyond the material requirements for the position and ensures that there is a match with organizational core values, they typically see those individuals not only excel in operations but also commit to adding value to the culture of the organization and contributing vastly to seeing it grow. -Tiersa Smith-Hall, The Hartling Group 9. They Fill Your Department's Needs Know what the goal is before you hire a new team member. Is this person being hired to improve efficiencies? Increase revenue? Lower costs? Retain or hire talent? Whatever the goal is, have a measurement for that and compare the expectation to the result of their presence and performance. If your goal is not clearly defined, you will have a difficult time objectively evaluating your hiring success. -Angela Nguyen, Core Catalyst 10. They Are Transparent There is no universal formula because all organizations have different strategies and values. Hiring is a big responsibility and future employees can lead to success or failure. Trusted conversation and demonstrating understanding could be key to learning more about a candidate. Answers to "simple" questions like "What irritated you about your previous work?" are surprising sometimes. - Evgenia Pavlova, ECM Space Consulting 11. The First 60-Days Have Gone Well We worked with a large organization that launched a clever but quite simple 60-day survey. They would ask both the hiring manager and the employee, "Knowing what you know now, do you feel that you made the right decision?" The responses were striking with roughly 65% of managers and 67% of new hires saying "No." This foundationally reshaped their talent acquisition and talent strategy processes. - Mark Stelzner, IA 12. Insight From Key Stakeholders Is Positive Keep your ear to the ground! Ensure you are checking in with the hiring manager to get their feedback as they are the closest to the new hire. You can also consider an informal 360 review to gather valuable insight from key stakeholders within the organization who work closely with the new hire. - Caroline Faulds, Canada Pooch 13 Indicators To Help HR Leaders Hire The Right Job Candidates (forbes.com)