What Are Your Hiring Criteria For Each Position?

Do you have a clear statement of your hiring criteria for each position at your company?

For your office manager?

Salesperson? Indoor sales? Outdoor sales?

Tech Support?

Billing and collections?

Receptionist?

If you do not have this clear statement for every key position, it would be very helpful to put that together. Get that on your computer and in a folder you can easily find. Or, even better, print each one out and put it in its own folder.

If you’re interviewing Sally Jones for position X, you may find she’s not ideal for that position, but she would be great for position Y. However, position Y is filled right now. Go ahead and place Sally Jones’ résumé and her other hiring notes in the folder for position Y. If she’s ideal for more than one position, make a copy of her hiring credentials and include those in more than one folder.

Now, when you hire for position Y — even months or years down the road — outcomes that folder. With one phone call or email, you just may find Sally Jones available again. You just saved a lot of time.

But, let’s get back to this point of hiring criteria.

Does the position require someone who is genuinely friendly, empathetic and a skilled communicator?

Or do you need someone who is tough and supremely pro-active?

Does the position require all of those qualities?

People have personality traits. Different personal skills they are strong in, other ones not so strong.

Can they easily solve problems or are they frequently asking others for advice.

How well do they follow instructions?

How well will they get along with fellow employees?

Ideally, you’ll locate these strengths and weaknesses in the hiring interview. You should also be doing pre-employment testing. Our pre-employment tests will give you a wealth of information about each applicant.

You could say it’s a match game. Match your criteria for the position with the skills and the personal traits of your applicants. That last sentence wasn’t telling you anything new, but this tip is about making this a bit more of a science. By having handy a clear statement of the hiring criteria for each position — and using that statement — your hiring decisions will come faster, with more confidence and likely with a better outcome.