How to Hire Trustworthy Employees
In an ideal world, everyone you hire would be trustworthy and highly skilled to benefit your business. Sadly, that’s not every hiring manager or business owner’s experience. Research from a talent solutions consultancy found that nearly half of senior decision-makers in 2022 believe they made a bad hiring decision in the past year. You can’t always predict how employees will turn out, but you might improve your chances of hiring trustworthy employees by taking these actions:
Performing Background Checks
Using a company like Triton Canada to perform background checks on potential new employees may be more valuable than you think. Background checks can reveal information about criminal records, educational history, and past employers.
You can compare what you find to the applicants’ resumes to ensure all information matches up. If it doesn’t, you may have saved yourself from hiring a dishonest employee who may not have been the right fit for your business.
Checking References
It’s easy to assume that people won’t put the names and contact information of people who won’t say good things about them on their resumes. However, that’s not always true. Former employers and people your applicant has worked with or associated with are likely to be honest if they don’t believe the applicant will be the right fit for a business. Always check applicant references before making your hiring decision. You never know what information you’ll learn that may impact the actions you take.
Defining Your Trustworthiness Parameters
You may say you want to hire someone trustworthy for your business, but you need to define what that is. Otherwise, you may not have any particular attributes you want your applicants to have. As a general rule, trustworthy employees are those who take accountability and show integrity. They’re also reliable and honest.
Holding Behavioral Interviews
Someone can have a glowing resume and references that show them in the best light, but that doesn’t mean they have a personality or behaviors that would gel with your workplace. After all, you need someone who can work as part of a team.
You don’t have to wait until you hire them to determine whether they possess the right behavioral traits. You can hold behavioral interviews. These interviews are all about assessing applicants’ behaviors and attitudes in specific situations. You can ask them situational questions to see how they would have handled challenging situations in their previous jobs. What they share with you may make or break your hiring decision.
Implementing a Probation Period
Unless you live in Montana, there is no federal requirement for you to put a probationary period in place for new hires. However, it can be a good idea if you’re worried about hiring employees and ensuring they’re the right fit.
Having a probationary period means you can have a window of time to let someone go without too many issues if they aren’t meeting your expectations. Most businesses give employees 90 days to learn their roles. Within that time, they can decide whether to hire them or terminate their positions.
Hiring trustworthy employees doesn’t have to be as difficult as it seems. While you can’t look at someone and know they’re dependable, you can run background checks, implement probationary periods, and hold behavioral interviews to find out.
