Key Candidate Quality Indicators

Choosing the right candidates for your open position is sometimes a challenge. You need a candidate who has the right hard skills, soft skills, and personality to be successful in your open position, and you have a limited amount of time to figure out whether the candidates you're considering have those attributes. Thirty-nine percent of talent acquisition managers find quality of hire the most valuable metric of performance, and with good reason: the right candidate can make a huge difference for your business, while the wrong one can leave you scrambling to get their tasks taken care of or rushing to fill that position again when you realize that the candidate simply was not a good fit. Unfortunately, only around 32% of organizations in the United States feel that they successfully measure that quality of hire — and measuring the quality of a candidate can be even harder.

Do you know what to look for in a quality candidate? By looking for these key quality indicators in your candidates, however, you can increase the odds that you will successfully fill your open roles with candidates who have the attributes necessary to be successful with your company.

Candidate Quality Indicator #1: Adaptability

Adaptability is one of the most critical indicators of your candidates' future success on the job. An adaptable candidate is already prepared to fit into your organization. Rather than being stuck on the processes and procedures used in their last job, the candidate will be eager to jump in, learn how your organization does things, and make changes accordingly. 

Furthermore, an adaptable candidate will learn and grow with your business, which can be particularly beneficial in fast-changing industries. 

An adaptable candidate is able to adjust quickly to new job responsibilities, new clients, or new potential problems — and they're much more likely to respond quickly and positively when challenges hit, rather than becoming frustrated or giving up. 

Candidate Quality Indicator #2: Self-Awareness

Self-aware candidates know their strengths and their shortcomings, and they know them well. They're able to take an objective look at both their past successes and their past failures and give you a strong idea of why those successes and failures occurred. 

A self-aware candidate is the one that, in a job interview, is able to easily answer questions about both their best qualities and their potential weaknesses. On the job, they can provide even more benefits.

Only around 10-15% of candidates are truly self-aware. When you find them, however, they can be an immense asset to your organization. Self-aware candidates know who they are, what they stand for, and what they can bring to your organization. They're also aware of the potential challenges they may face, which makes them more likely to ask for help when they need it. 

Modern hiring solutions like Crosschq, allow you to have better visibility into candidates’ self-awareness. With Crosschq 360 reference checks candidates have an additional voice in the hiring process.

Completing their own IO psychologist job-match survey gives you a better idea of how candidates rate themselves as well as how they rate themselves compared to what their references have to say about them, which can give you a better idea of their overall self-awareness.

Candidate Quality Indicator #3: Communication Skills

Modern hiring practices give you plenty of opportunities to communicate with candidates before you hire them. Seventy-three percent of employers note their preference for candidates with strong written communication skills, and with good reason. 

Communication can make all the difference in your candidate's overall success. A candidate with good communication skills will be able to communicate challenges in the workplace, communicate well with clients, and manage potential conflict more effectively.  

Good written communication skills can impact a candidate's success rate in the job even more. Today's businesses use written communication more frequently than ever, with email, text messaging and chats becoming increasingly common. 

A candidate with good written communication skills can often integrate more easily into the workplace, form better relationships, and share information more effectively.

Candidate Quality Indicator #4: Values

Your candidate's values can make a huge difference when you're ready to identify top talent and determine which candidates will make the best fit for your organization. Ideally, you want a candidate whose values mesh with yours: one who believes in the same things your organization does and will be committed to what it stands for, rather than simply working for a paycheck. 

If your candidate's values are not a good match for your organization’s, on the other hand, you may find it much more difficult to keep your candidate in that position. 

Candidate Quality Indicator #5: Goals and Plans

A quality candidate will have goals and plans for the future. Ideally, you want a candidate who is eager to succeed in their chosen career path. Get to know how your candidate defines success and what long-term goals they may have. Discuss where they see themselves in the future: what they want to accomplish and where they want to go with their careers. A good candidate will have their eye on future training opportunities and personal development strategies. 

Keep in mind, however, that the ideal candidate does not have to be one who is driven to constantly reach new heights in their career. In many cases, a strong candidate is one who is content to remain in a given position, who knows their strengths and weaknesses and is content in a position that is a good fit for them. That candidate, however, should still have goals for self-improvement and skill enhancement that will make them a better fit for your organization in the future. 

Get Help With Determining Candidate Quality

Choosing the right candidates for your hiring needs can be a challenge. Crosschq, however, simplifies the process. With its data-driven solution,  it’s easier to quantify candidate skills, so you can determine whether a candidate will be a good match for your company, and it's backed by real-time data.

Ready to learn more? Schedule a demo today to learn how our products can help improve your reference checks, recruiting efforts, and candidate quality assessment.