What to look for when recruiting potential employees

Caroline Kamanja is the CEO and director at Daproim Africa Limited, a business processing and outsourcing company in Kenya. The company has had over 3,000 people working for it over the years. Based on her vast experience on human resource, she speaks with JACQUELINE MAHUGU on what to look for when recruiting potential employees.

1. WATCH THEIR ATTITUDE

There are things such as disposition and character that one cannot hide. Our businesses are very different in terms of the complexity of work and the rewards on offer. As employers, we do not have instant gratification from all the work and money we put it, so, an employee must really earn their pay. Attitude counts for a lot, especially when the business isn't doing very well.

2. FLEXIBILITY

What are the skills range of the potential employee? If say you are looking for an editor, Is editing the only skill he has? This is important to know so that when you need varied tasks done, you know whether you can rely on them to take them up as they come. Also check on quality – how good they are at what they do and if they are in a position to give their all.

3. LOYALTY

As an employer, I have had instances where my employees are poached by our competitors. So now we are able to find out how loyal one is from their past working experience. Ask them a few questions about why they left where they were and you shall easily gauge their loyalty.

4.  TEAM PLAYER?

One thing you are guaranteed when you work in our company is that you will not work alone. In interviews, we ask various team-centred scenarios and ask how they would handle them.  From that we can tell if they are  team players. We need people who can work with others, brainstorm together and come up with solutions. People who are willing to share their ideas and their expertise. If you get that, you have hit a jackpot.

5. CHECK THEIR WILLINGNESS TO LEARN

There are people who did their Bachelor degrees 10 years ago but they have not done anything else in terms of improving their profession. There are so many online courses nowadays so one cannot tell you that it is due to lack of money. What have you tried to do? Are you willing to put more effort to become better?

6. THE SKILL-SET LEVEL

There are people who might not necessarily have an educational background in a certain area but they have worked in a certain field before and have picked up some specialised skills. Skill set is very important because you have to be a guru in what you do, especially for some jobs like being an app developer. If you did, say, accounting, it would be difficult to do app developing unless you've gone the extra mile to teach yourself how to do it. Give that person a chance.

8. REFERENCES ARE VERY IMPORTANT

A new employee came and stole some things from our office. As much as you want to help people, you do not want to help them in that way. We use a certain company to do reference checks on potential employees. Referrals are very important. Take some extra time to try and find out where this person comes from and the kind of people they relate with.

9. HIRE STRICTLY ON MERIT

Do not hire based on past relationships or just because you know someone. Hire people because they have what your business needs. It comes to a point where you have to separate yourself from the business. Recognise the skills your business needs then hire the right person. Also, when hiring for a position, do not assume that because one performed well in a certain role, that they will do the same in a different role. When you promote someone to a leadership position because of the skills that they have, you might be paralysing them. That is because they might not be good leaders just because they performed in certain tasks well.

10. WORK WITH THE ROLE'S JOB DESCRIPTION

First look at the role you want to hire for and work with the specific job description for that role. Don't look at someone's experience and say "I think this person can be..." For example, someone might tell you, "I worked for this company and I was the chief quality analyst" yet the vacancy in your organization is for an operations manager. Hire for the role you have. Do not promote incompetence.