The best candidates in your applicant pool are likely to demonstrate a set of skills that are difficult to measure (often called “soft” skills for this reason). These skills can serve as a strong predictor of long term success, and if you’re watching carefully, they’re often easy to spot. If you see a candidate who can handle the day-to-day demands of this specific role while also bringing these intangible benefits to the table, don’t let that candidate get away.

Listening skill.

For almost any position, you’ll want candidates who can speak boldly and articulate their thoughts and opinions. Employees who can charm, persuade, and motivate using words can boost your reputation as well as your sales numbers and can help any company grow and thrive. But there’s one thing that’s more important—and harder to find—than good talkers: good listeners. Listeners are the candidates who understand your words, process your intentions accurately, and remember the things you say. They can read nuance and inflection, and they truly care about the success of any given interaction.

Friendliness and approachability.

Again, skilled communicators all have one thing in common: They really want to want to understand and be understood. They have a personal desire for connection, and they work hard to reach out and to make themselves available to others.

Executive functioning skill.

Great candidates can do several things at one time (multitask), and they have strong memories. They can break off one conversation, pick up another, and return to the first where they left off without missing a beat. They can handle the complexities of scheduling, budgeting, teamwork, and leadership all on the same day, and sometimes during the same minute.

Culture-building.

The best candidates can read a person’s mood, but they also read the mood of a room, or an entire workplace. They know the difference between a toxic conversation, culture or mission, and a healthy one. And they know how to set a personal example and steer the ship in the right direction.

Fearlessness.

When change needs to happen, the best candidates face it head-on. They aren’t afraid to speak up for what’s right or stand up for a person or an idea. Ask your candidate to describe a moment from the past in which she demonstrated courage by taking action against the status quo.

Resilience and determination.

What happens to your candidate when she experiences a setback? What happens when he doesn’t get what he wants or doesn’t experience immediate results? Choose the candidates who get up when they get knocked down—the ones who aren’t phased by minor obstacles and who don’t take rejection personally.

For more on how to recognize signs of success in your applicants, turn to the staffing and hiring experts at Merritt.

If you’re like most hiring managers, your company occasionally faces spikes in client demand. These spikes may happen on a regular seasonal schedule, or they may occur without warning based on market forces beyond your control. You may also sometimes find yourself in a lurch for the opposite reason; instead of too many projects, you simply don’t have enough hands to manage the standard workload, due to sudden departures, simultaneous leaves, or overlapping vacations.

So what to do? How can you handle the gap between the work that needs to be done and the employees available to do it? And how can you pull this off without breaking your budget or hurting your company’s reputation? Consider the benefits of a temporary or contingency hiring to get you through the rough patch.

Temporary employees reduce risk.

Sometimes temporary workers are only interested in temporary jobs. They want to step on board, work for a few weeks, and then move on. But plenty of others would actually like to find full time, permanent positions eventually. And plenty of employers are also interested in long term arrangements if—and only if—the two parties are mutually compatible. In a temporary work agreement, both participants can take the relationship for a test drive, and if all goes well, the agreement can become long term after the contract period ends.

Temporary employment reduces hassle.

Signing on a permanent full-time employee means paperwork, and paperwork means headaches. But if you employ a temp, the agency hires and pays them, not you. We also handle tax reporting, insurance issues, and all necessary screening and testing to make sure your candidate fits the bill before you even meet for the first interview.

Temporary employees can be highly skilled.

If you’re just looking for an honest, hardworking person who can help you complete a low skill task (like moving boxes or stacking papers), that’s fine. But modern temporary employees come with every imaginable skill set and every imaginable level of experience. From high school diplomas to Phds, and from coding to healthcare to engineering to culinary skills, a great agency can help you find the exact candidates and skills sets you need.

Temporary employment saves time.

Hiring is expensive, and a great deal of this expense is often a function of time. It takes time (and therefore money) to source positions, post ads, review resumes, screen candidates, screen them again, interview, then make a final decision. So leave the heavy lifting to us. We’re great listeners, and once we understand what you’re looking for, we can access our vast network of resources and connections to bring the right candidate directly to your door.

For more on how to handle a temporary workload or form relationships with new employees at minimal cost and risk, reach out to the Fairfeld County recruiting professionals at Merritt Staffing.