The Characteristics of a Good Employee

Are there common characteristics of a good employee?

Many businesses make hires based on diplomas, others on resumes, other companies hire on "gut."

I don't presume to know what elements go into your hiring process, but I do know the ultimate goal of effective businesses. . .

. . desired results.

Careers are won and lost by the people you hire.

Every time you hire a new employee, you stake your reputation as a leader and the chemistry of your team out on the line.

Discovering the traits that make up a good employee is probably more a matter of discovering what works best for your specific business, rather than trying to find the "perfect" employee on paper.

The Myth of Motivation

Fact is, if you're spending any amount of time motivating employees, you'd better get new employees.

And go ahead and get a new hiring manager while you're at it.

Why do you struggle so hard to motivate people to do the jobs they were hired for? Isn't that the role of their parents?

How much easier would your job be if you could look into a crystal ball and see exactly whether or not a potential hire has the characteristics of a good employee that you and your business are looking for?

Brad Smart, the business author and highly sought after organizational consultant to organizations like GE and Motorola, calls it "Topgrading."

Smart can prove, convincingly, "Topgrading" is the answer to almost every organization's hiring decisions.

It's a system for targeting, and hiring, the "A" players within any group, and building a highly effective team around them, while ridding your organization of the "C" players.

In Smart's mind:

Always superior.

Meaning: Who you hire and fire is your responsibility.

The employees who build your team or organization are either "A" players or you're not doing your job.

Here are the main characteristics of a good employee:

• Readily accepts responsibility for their actions and their results.
• They see themselves as "agents of change," meaning they feel have the ability to change their environment when they take the right actions.
• They strive to develop themselves.
• They see opportunity where most only see difficulty.
• Failure is the stepping stone to success. To the "A" player, failure is okay, as long as it proceeds success.
• Results focused.
• Optimistic.

So what are your mis-hires costing you and your business?

13 times your employee's salary in many cases! That's how much hiring the wrong person for your team and organization will cost in extra training, hand holding, time, mistakes, and the cost of training their replacement.

Why not go after the right person from the get go? Target your new hire based upon the characteristics of a good employee from the get go and save yourself the trouble.

Some people will say, "I can't find them?"

Someone is obviously hiring these "A" players. Why not you?

If you find yourself constantly dealing with problem employees there is a kink in your hiring loop somewhere. You're not taking some important factor into account.

If you hire based simply on factors such as schooling, resume, or who they know it's possible you're shooting yourself in the foot.

Go back to the Characteristics of a Good Team Page

Hey. . . I want to go back to the Team Building Homepage!