How to Find Good Employees

As most successful entrepreneurs will tell you, one of the biggest challenges to starting your own company is finding the right team to support you. When a company is in the startup stage, there is no end to the number of challenges that you can face. Having the right employees around you will only help you with those challenges. However, the process of finding good employees isn’t always easy. Whether you are just getting started or are a seasoned business, finding new employees will always be a challenge.

Hiring the Right Employee: Vetting Candidates with the Seven C’s

Once you have posted an advertisement for an opening in your company, it is time to start sifting through the applications you receive. Most entrepreneurs find that they get far more applicants than they expect, but that doesn’t mean they are all good applicants. As you start to go through the applicants to determine which individuals are interview-worthy and which are not, consider the “Seven C’s.”

The “Seven C’s” of hiring a new employee is a commonly used tool that can help anyone find the right candidate:

1. Competent – Does the candidate have the experience and skills needed to perform the job?
2. Capable – Is this person capable of handling the tasks at hand and the potential to grow and take on more responsibility?
3. Compatible – Will this person get along with existing employees, colleagues, clients and partners?
4. Commitment – Is the person committed to the job and serious about working long-term?
5. Character – Does this person seem honest, selfless and ethical? Do their values match yours?
6. Culture – Will this person fit within your company culture, or will they disrupt your balance?
7. Compensation – Does this person agree to the amount of compensation being offered? Will they be satisfied with this payment?

Tips for Finding the Right Employee That Fits Within Your Company Culture

One of the top reasons that new employees tend not to work out is because they simply do not fit within a company’s culture. You can do all of the work and find an employee that meets all of your necessary credentials on paper, but if they do not fit within the company culture, there is nothing that can be done. Here are some tips to keep in mind when it comes to finding employees that will fit in with your company:

• Implement behavior-based questions into your interview to get a feel for how this person tends to act in an office setting
• Ask for examples of how the employee has handled challenges that were similar to challenges people tend to face in your office
• Let employees know your company’s core values right away
• Ask about the employee’s worst experience in a company culture to see what they observed and how they reacted
• Bring other employees into the interview to see how they interact with existing team members

When an employee does not mesh with the office environment, it can cause more problems than it is worth, so keep these tips in mind when hiring.

How to Hire the Best Employee

After vetting all of the potential employees you have and making sure that they not only meet your qualifications but seem as though they will fit within your organization, it is time to make a decision and handle the hiring process.

There may be several candidates that meet your requirements, which can make things difficult. Go through and make sure they meet all of the categories of the “seven C’s” and that you have thought about how they will fit in with your company culture.

If there are still ties, consider a “pro” vs. “con” list for your employees. Finally, one of the best tips to deciding between equal candidates is to determine whose company you enjoy best. After all, this person is someone you will be spending much of your day around, so they need to be someone that you will want to interact with often.

If you have the opposite issue and there is no real candidate that sticks out as the right employee, don’t rush the process. Take the time to really search and find the right individual for the job. Hiring the wrong person is often more work and stress than leaving a position open for a few extra weeks.

If you take the time to perform the right type of searching, handle the hiring process correctly and find employees that fit within your company culture, you are well on your way to getting the new staff member your company needs to shine.