Two Candidate Characteristics to Verify AFTER They Start Work

 

In your projects, you may bring in contingency workers to "try before you buy" before making them full-time employees. The question is do you know what to look for during this period? It's worth taking the time to plan to get this right because it is costly and frustrating to make an error in hiring, as has been covered in the Eye before. 

Taking a step back for a second, think about the interview process. You ask questions to check whether the candidate fits the position. But can every characteristic be clearly verified in the interview process? No. There are certainly factors that are verifiable during an interview and others that are very difficult to judge during an interview.

It would be helpful now to have a practical way to categorize characteristics being sought in candidates. CEO of oDesk Gary Swart did just that recently here (login may be needed). He uses four categories:

• Skills
• Knowledge
• Motivation
• Personal Characteristics  

In my estimation, the top two are easier to verify during the interview. The bottom two are more difficult, making them better for verifying during actual working time. Here are tips for doing that.

Assessing Motivation

You know it is difficult to judge a person’s motivation fully in an interview, but weeks or months of working with that person in the heat of a project battle will reveal the truth. Does the worker show evidence of being

• Team-focused OR self-serving?
• Results-oriented OR obsessed with career advancement?
• Supportive of long-term organizational success OR of short-term gain for notoriety?

Monitoring Personal Characteristics

It will help to use a few of examples from Gary Swart’s list of personal characteristics: integrity, passion and judgment. We’d all like to know that these characteristics are displayed in ways that are constructive and productive. So while the contingency worker completes tasks and interacts with the project team and stakeholders, monitor behavior so that you can see whether the worker

• behaves and communicates in an authentic way
• elicits trust
• is prepared for meetings
• shows excitement for the project objectives
• appears to be “building a castle” rather than merely laying bricks
• interprets messages correctly
• considers alternatives before acting in controversial or complex situations
• appropriately (per your culture) uses short cuts and influence to get results

With this practical way to categorize characteristics and evaluate a candidate, you can create a more sophisticated selection process that extends into the working period and does a better job of finding and hiring that high performer you desperately need.