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Everyone knows that getting interviewed for a job and trying your best to impress your potential employer is hard work – but sitting at the other end of the table is no light feat either. Interviewers and HR officials usually have to evaluate several well-qualified applicants and pick out from the crowd the one that is the best fit for the company. Relevant work experience, a sound educational background, and a record of delivering great results are of course key; but what are the less obvious skills you should be looking for in prospective employees?
People Who Identify With the Company
Time to turn the spotlight to the elephant in the room: soft skills. In a recent study conducted by CareerBuilder and Harris Poll that surveyed over 2,000 HR experts and hiring managers, soft skills placed well at the forefront of what employers should be looking for; 77% of respondents said soft skills are equally important to hard skills like work-relevant expertise and technical skills, while 16% of those surveyed saw soft skills as even more crucial.
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A further 73% identified a strong work ethic as the most coveted soft skill – sometimes this quality does not get the focus it deserves, but devotion to the company and integrity can prove essential along the way. It means that an employee will not only work hard but will go above and beyond when needed without being negative about the extra effort they need to put in. This mentality can really make a difference especially in the context of a team, functioning as inspiration for colleagues and instilling a sense of security in supervisors.
People Who Are Tech Savvy
It’s no secret that when you are looking to run a successful enterprise, technology is key; from an internal work distribution system to online and social presence, your IT department is making sure everything keeps running smoothly. But it is not only your IT employees that need to understand the basics of data security: chances are that everyone in your company is involved with some sort of data collecting and processing – even if they wouldn’t necessarily call it that – and, as such, are a potential source of danger for the data you store and use.
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Employees might inadvertently expose sensitive data when accessing it through an unsecured WiFi connection or their personal email instead of their corporate email account (which is known as an accidental insider threat) or they might download malicious email attachments on a company laptop and thus infect your network with malware (a compromised insider threat, where an attacker takes advantage of an insider’s authorized activities). In fact, research shows that 60% of cyber attacks are an inside job and overall 15.5% are caused by inadvertent actors – so employing people who know the fundamentals can really go a long way.
People Who Speak Their Minds
Confidence does not necessarily translate to an employee that will delight in delivering public speeches or volunteer for everything – and it certainly does not mean a person who can think they can do a better job at everything. Rather, we are talking about employees who are not afraid to speak their minds and assume responsibility.
Source: Pexels
This effectively means that when things go wrong and someone notices, you can rely on them to come forward with the problem so that it can be quickly identified and resolved. Very often, employees will wait for their colleagues to speak up first – which may result in the issue being noticed by management when it is too late. Having people whom you can trust to be unpleasant when they need to is a top quality for a great employee.
So, next time you are looking for the best hire, pay attention not only to what people answer but by how they answer it and make sure that they know their data security basics. The most suitable employee is not the one who just looks good on paper – but the one who can actually deliver the goods, too.