Employees are the heart and soul of an organisation. But what makes an individual employable?
“Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy.” stated Warren Buffett.
Today, human resource managers are often challenged to sift through piles of resumes to identify individuals with stellar qualities. The ideal candidates would be the ones that go the extra mile to add value to their work, and consequently, to the organisation. Given the gamut of workforce traits, we dived into the attribute pool to shed some light into hiring preferences of the HR community.
Would the go-getter, whose ambitions dominate his purpose in life be an asset to an organisation? How about the one who wears the creative hat offering out-of-box solutions? We did a bit of talking and reading to spell out key traits to consider while hiring people.
Mamitha Chatterjee, HR Manager, Delta Electronics, said, “We are looking for people with the right attitude, relevant skills, a positive mindset, and individuals who are willing to learn and adjust to the company culture.”
Nowadays, strategies are more short-term and therefore, flexibility and willingness of an individual to adapt to changing times hold much value. Most skills can be acquired by extensive training, but employers are looking for people with soft skills as well — to better collaborate with others and create strategic networks of people groups to foster productivity and growth.
Ankush Agarwal, Head - Talent Acquisition (Business Hiring) at Zeta said, “Any kind of skill development can be received by training, but the right attitude, energy, and the quality of taking ownership are extremely important traits we look for while hiring people.”
Furthermore, resilience seems to be the most important attribute. “Overall, we look for an individual who is resilient and can take on challenging situations.” added Mamitha.
Each job donnes a personality and a prospective employee must resonate it. Ankush articulated his final remarks, “The personality of the job must complement the personality of the person.”
While domain expertise and functional knowledge are always important, an individual’s emotional quotient (EQ) and an ability to adapt to changing work environments are indisputably dominant traits, sought after by HR professionals.
