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How to Know If You’re Hiring the Right Person
Hiring the wrong person costs more than most business owners want to admit. There’s the time spent training them, the damage they can do to team culture, and then the uncomfortable process of letting them go. Getting it right from the start is worth the extra effort.
Here’s what to actually look for.
Before the interview starts
Punctuality tells you something. If a candidate is late and didn’t bother to call or send a message, that’s a signal. It doesn’t disqualify them on its own, but it tells you how seriously they’re taking this. The same applies whether it’s a Zoom call or a face-to-face meeting.
Put them at ease, then pay attention
Some people interview badly because they’re nervous, not because they’re the wrong fit. It’s your job to settle them down before you start asking the hard questions.
Ask them something easy first. What do they like to do outside of work? Why do they enjoy it? How long have they been doing it? Once they’re talking about something they’re comfortable with, you’ll get a much clearer read on who they actually are.
Do they know anything about your company?
This one is simple and revealing. Ask them to tell you about your business. What do they know about you?
If they can’t answer, it’s not because your website is hard to find. It’s because they didn’t look. Someone who didn’t take ten minutes to research the company they’re interviewing at isn’t showing you the best version of themselves. That matters.
Why do they want to work for you?
Listen carefully to how they answer this. Are they talking about what your company offers them, or what they can offer your company? There’s a big difference.
The candidates worth hiring talk about adding value, developing skills, and contributing to something. The ones to watch out for talk mainly about what suits them personally.
Give them a problem to solve
Throw a scenario at them relevant to the role. Don’t help them. Just ask how they’d approach it and stay quiet.
You’re not necessarily looking for the perfect answer. You’re looking at how they think. Can they reason through something under a bit of pressure? Do they draw on past experience? This tells you far more than a rehearsed answer to a standard interview question.
You can also ask something like: on a scale of one to ten, how important is workplace culture to you? Or: what frustrates you most when working with other people? These questions reveal whether someone is honest, self-aware, and likely to work well with the people already on your team.
What the resume actually tells you
Resumes are polished documents, and plenty of tools exist to make anyone look impressive on paper. Don’t rely on it too heavily.
What is worth looking at is the pattern. How often has this person moved between roles? Short stints at multiple companies in a row is worth asking about. It’s not automatically a dealbreaker, but it’s a flag.
Also pay attention to how they talk about previous employers. If every past job was someone else’s fault, you’re probably hearing a preview of what they’ll say about you one day.
Always call the references
This step gets skipped too often. Don’t skip it.
When you call, ask specific questions. What were their biggest strengths? What value did they add? If a position opened up tomorrow, would you rehire them? Ask about how they worked with others, how they handled change, and whether they were the kind of person who brought ideas to the table.
A reference check takes twenty minutes and can save you months of problems.
Hire slow
Rushing a hire because you’re under pressure is one of the most expensive decisions you can make. The cost of getting it wrong, in time, money, and culture, almost always outweighs the inconvenience of taking a bit longer to find the right person.
Do the work upfront. The right hire is worth waiting for.
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