You’ve gone to Craigslist, or LinkedIn.

You’ve put up your job posting.

The applications start hitting your email inbox.

You’ve invited the best ones to an interview. Maybe you’ve even asked some questions from Hiring Guide – Part 3: Inverview questions.

But now what?

The candidate may seem confident, and may even have some references, but you could still make a mistake by hiring them. How can you tell which candidate would be a good employee for you?

This is the question we aim to answer in this article. We will name a few GREEN flags to look out for. This way you will be able to easily identify which candidate would be the best for your company

In a future article we will also cover the red flags, however, since we at HRM Network are optimists, we will start with the positives.

Candidate Green Flags

Candidate References

A lot of candidates boast about their great accomplishments. However, the ones that can prove it are a different story. If your candidate has great LinkedIn references and endorsements, and it looks like every company they worked at loves them, then that is a serious green flag. This could be someone you would want to hire.

They are prepared

There is nothing worse than conducting an interview and asking: “Do you have any questions for me?” and the person seeming confused and unprepared. A good potential employee will be informed and well prepared with good questions and ideas.

Honesty

You want someone who is confident, but also honest about his flaws and shortcomings. If you are talking to a person that believes himself to be perfect, and every mistake is somebody else’s fault, that person will not be good for your company. You want somebody who is highly capable and confident, but also realistic.

These are just some of the many green flags you should look out for when deciding which candidate to hire.