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5 Qualities To Look For In New Hires

When building a team, there is nothing more important than hiring someone who is not only good at what they do, but who will also exhibit these 5...

When you’re building a team, there is nothing more important than hiring someone who is not only good at what they do, but who will also mesh well with the rest of your employees and your customers.

A business is nothing without its employees. After 14 years as a business owner, I know that great employees have helped my digital marketing agency become what it is today. So, when an employee moves on or we look to expand, these are the five qualities I look for in a hire.

 

1. Adaptability

Digital marketing is a fast-paced industry. You need to constantly evolve and be ready to research and learn on your own. This means the right mindset means being ready to learn and change and put new skills to the test. If you don’t have this spark and flexibility, you won’t last long.

 

2. Resourcefulness

When you serve multiple clients and juggle a number of responsibilities, being able to manage your time is essential. A good hire will have proven time management skills and be able to accomplish his or her tasks on time and with little-to-no supervision.

 

3. A keen eye for the small stuff

Hire employees that are detail-oriented. Whether it’s reading content 50 times, making 20 revisions on a website or simply paying attention to the colors and logo specs for a client’s brochure, a good hire lives and breathes the details.

It doesn’t matter the job responsibilities or position title; details are crucial to any business. Noticing if someone exhibits this quality starts with the hiring process. I’ll often review resumes with grammatical errors or even worse, spelling errors. Those immediately go in the trash. If a potential employee doesn’t care enough to put their best foot forward from the start, why would they for a client down the road?

 

4. Project management skills

Most companies these days are looking for someone who’s not afraid to work outside their job descriptions. My agency is no different. We’ve worked to break down silos between departments so our employees can have a holistic view of the entire marketing process. Along with this, in marketing, every client will have unique needs and you’ll have to learn to meet them. I look for hires with an ability to juggle tasks effectively without letting any drop.

 

5. Culture fit

Culture fit is critical. This is key for both how the hire interacts with your team and how he or she interacts with current and potential clients. If a person doesn’t gel with my team or can’t handle talking with clients, it’s a sign they might not work out long-term.

For example, we utilize a trial period to ensure our new hires are slam dunks. During our introductory period, if it seems like the employee doesn’t fit our culture, has difficulty interacting with clients or perhaps the employee just didn’t like the work, we can part ways. No harm no foul.

 

This article has been edited.

Alex Wolk is Founder of INSITEADVICE. He loves SEO and STL. He’s a Huffington Post and Businessdotcom contributor. A version of this article originally appeared here.

 

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