Spot Top Talent: Hiring Off of Potential

Focusing on resumes or qualifications only tells us one part of the story, the teams at the best recruitment and staffing agencies have a keen eye of gauging the potential of a candidate and assessing their ability to be a perfect fit at your company. As the population here in North America continues to age and slowly retire, Workopolis conducted a survey and found that 56% of high-level executive see a gap developing when it comes to filling senior roles in the years ahead. As a result of this, Proem found that many of its clients across North America are willing to roll this dice when it comes to hiring someone off of potential. They take the plunge to hire someone not solely off of their experience, so we’ve developed this step by step guide to help you consider a few key factors when deciding to extend an offer to possible hires.

Step 1: Gauge Curiosity, Enthusiasm, and Motivation

After you’ve gone through the person’s resume and divulged into their experience, ask some questions about what they want in life and what their broader goals are. Use their enthusiasm about your industry and what drives them on a daily basis to determine if they are a good fit. Consider, their engagement with your profession and assess their genuine interest in working at your firm.
During the interview, you can tell how passionate someone is by judging how they talk about their work and the questions they might ask you about the work or profession. For example, a quality lab tech may ask about lab procedures or a financial analyst may want to ramble about the economy these are both subtle indicators. If you cover these basis points when conducting an interview, you should have a good idea of what they’ve already learned the skills they have and what they need to learn. This will help you in determining how much of an investment your firm will have to make into that person.

Step 2: Ask Whatever You Need to

A lot of the times we deal with clients who desperately need a new team member that they forget or don’t even mention some of their biggest questions. Fast forward six months and you’ve realized it just wasn’t the right fit. That’s why its important during the first couple meetings you have with a candidate that you both communicate the expectation of one another.

Ask company specific questions like:

• Why do you want to work here?
• How can you add value to our firm?
• What stands out to you about our culture compared to other firms?
Ask Situational Based Questions like:
• Tell about a time when you had to manage multiple deadlines or projects
• Describe when you had to deal with a difficult team member and how you resolved the issue
• How would you manage to deal with emergency tasks? How do you prioritize your work?
Ask Industry Specific Questions like:
• How do you stay up to date with the latest trends and changes?
• What did you think about this change and its impact on the profession?
• What is one thing you wish you could change about your career?
Ask Some Personal Experience Questions like:
• What has been your biggest professional accomplishment?
• Describe a time when you took control of a situation
• What is your goal for the next 3 to 5 years?

Step 3: Document and Make Notes

Carefully document and record your answers to these questions if you’re interviewing multiple candidates. You can tell when someone loves what they do, and you can see it in their eyes, you can tell by their smile and watch them glow as they describe to you what they enjoy. You can tell there’s that connection between the candidate and their career, look deeper, past resumes and skills.
Attitude. Remember this. It’s always easier to work with someone and groom them if they have a great attitude while they may lack some of the skills you need at least they are willing to learn and grow. Listen to your candidate speak about their experiences and key in for hints into what they can bring to the table. Finding the right candidate with a good mix of experience and potential would be optimal but identifying that candidate is a task of its own, at Proem we tell our clients it’s a no-brainer that candidates with great potential yield the best long-term results. Someone that is more seasoned will definitely be able to produce and perform at the levels you need them to, but they have likely been in the workforce longer than a rising star.
At Proem we take the role of identifying potential very seriously its why our clients say we are one of the best staffing and recruitment agencies they’ve ever dealt with, we’re honest in our assessment of candidates and always will be. With offices in Toronto, Orlando, Dallas & New York, we are ready to help you wherever you are.