I had a chance to walk on the beach in Florida yesterday.
New to me was the beach Warning Flags, which were all purple.
Nearby was a sign with a description of all the warning flags. The Purple flags identified a current danger of Stinging Marine Life.
Well, it wasn’t the most dangerous flag, those are red.
Then the question in my mind was what Stinging Marine Life looked like.
Once we know what to look for, we are empowered. The same applies to filling our ranks of employees.
Tomorrow I will be helping a VIP client with hiring a new employee. My job is to assist her by interviewing a prospective employee and giving her my perspective.
At least on paper, this is not an ideal potential employee. However, he is very persistent and he has a good track record in a closely related field.
This is not a bad start, especially in today’s world.
What should I be looking for?
What are the red flags and what are the green flags?
First are people skills. Skills in working with people are a very valuable asset. These skills are also difficult to teach. People either have good people skills or they don’t. People skills are not necessary for all jobs, but they are important in this situation.
The second trait I am looking for, is the person trainable? I will find evidence here in two places.
First, what does his history look like? What training has he been involved in during the past few years? Second, what do his references say about his trainability?
For any prospective employee, the best indicator of future success is his/her track record.
Remember you get results if you take immediate action on your idea!
