Which Characteristics Do You Look For In An Employee?

By John Timko, Director, Global Marketing, LabTech Software

There are many reasons for hiring a new employee. Maybe your business is growing and you need addition resources to help with the increasing workload. Maybe you had someone leave your team or company and you are backfilling the vacant position. Or maybe you have the misfortune of having to let an employee go for whatever reason and now you are filling the position.

Regardless of your reason to hire a new employee, it can be exciting and frustrating at the same time, but if you look for these characteristics in your new hire, it can make the process much smoother and easier.

How do they engage with you during the interview — confidence or arrogant?

One of the biggest things that I look for when interviewing someone is how they engage with me during a face-to-face interview. I understand the need and place for phone interviews, but I’m a big believer in having the initial interview take place as face-to-face. This way you can better connect (or not) with the candidate and better gauge their personality, body language, and true responses to your questions and their answers. The biggest thing that I’ve been able to gauge from these face-to-face interviews is whether the candidate is confident in their abilities and skills or whether they are just flat out arrogant. There can be a fine line between the two, but from my previous experience with employees that are more of the arrogant type it that it never works well with other employees whether on your team or within the company. You want a candidate that delivers the confidence in their abilities and skills, but yet understands and is aware of their surroundings to know when to lead and when to follow.

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