What to Hire for Other Than Skill - Spark Hire

What to Hire for Other Than Skill - Spark HireIn this episode of The Recruiting Reel, Sarah Dabby of ClickTime shares insights on what to look for in candidates, other than skill set.TheRecruitingReel Episode 6 is live Featuring SarahDabby and AllThingsBiz Watch it hereClick To TweetHeres the transcript of the episodeJosh Tolan Hey everyone, my name is Josh Tolan and Im the CEO of Spark Hire, the leading video interviewing platform used by thousands of organizations around the world.And this is The Recruiting Reel, a video series in which we discuss real recruiting challenges with namhaft recruiting experts so you walk awaywith actionable tips you can apply to your own recruiting.The expert on todays show isSarah Dabby, Head of Talent at ClickTime, a time and expense tracking application serving thousands of organizations around the world. Sarah spends most of her days sourcing, connecting with, and hiring great people in many different areas. ClickTimes headquarters is located in Sa n Francisco, but they also haveoffices in Denver, Austin, and London so Sarah is constantly recruiting in some of the most competitive markets.The topic of todays episode iswhat to hire for other than skill. In Sarahs experience at ClickTime, shes discovered that there are several key characteristics of a great hire that just cant be spotted on a resume. Thankfully, Sarah has some insight on how she evaluates the single characteristic that every successful ClickTime employee must have. Take it away SarahSarah Dabby Hi, Im Sarah, Head of Talent at ClickTime, and Im here to talk about what I look for in candidates. The most important thing we look for in a candidate is empathy. Thats important for two reasons, from the business perspective, our customers are King, so when were developing a new feature, rolling out a new product, or answering customer questions, we always have to keep the customers needs first.Within in company, were a small team, were less than 30 people, so the abili ty to work across departments, communicate really clearly, and go above and beyond the call of duty for teammates is really important.Empathy can be really tough to screen for, so were come up with a couple questions that have really helped us, and hopefully it will help you as well. The first one we ask is Whens the last time you went above and beyond the call of duty?. Now, this doesnt have to be business related, it can be for a friend, for a family member, or even complete stranger, because a lot of times we get the most color and the most interesting perspective from stories that have nothing to do with a candidates work life.The other question we tend to ask is Have you ever failed a colleague, a teammate, or you company?. We ask this because failure is inevitable on some level. We dont expect people to be perfect, we dont expect our candidates to do the right thing every single time. But we do care about how they react. If we have a candidate who just walks away from the expe rience and says Oh, well, it wasnt really my fault it was somebody elses fault, so Im not going to take responsibility for it that really doesnt show that much empathy or really caring about the company. Whereas if someone walks away and they think really hard about it, and they feel really bad about it because they let somebody down, that means they care a lot about their colleagues, their teammates, and the company at large, and that they really want to people around them to succeed. Thats a quality that is really important to us at ClickTime.Im Sarah, and the number one thing we look for at ClickTime is empathy.Josh Tolan Empathy is definitely a very important characteristic to hire for other than skill. Im sure most organizations with customer-facing positions can relate and found Sarahs methods for evaluating this characteristic to be tremendously helpful. The important thing to keep in mind here is that these key characteristics are going to be specific to your company cultur e. So, define these key characteristics and then determine whatmethods youre going to use to evaluate for them in the interview process.I want to thank todays expert, Sarah Dabby for coming on theshow today. I encourage you to check outclicktime.com to learn mora about their time and expense tracking application. And while youre at it,follow Sarah on Twitter SarahDabby and connect with her on LinkedIn using the URL below (linkedin.com/in/sarahdabby)Thank you for watching The Recruiting Reel. For moreHR and recruiting content, head over to hr.sparkhire.com and subscribe to our newsletter. Also, follow us on Twitter, sparkhire. And subscribe to our YouTube channel to be the first to know about the newest episodes of The Recruiting Reel.Thanks again, and happy recruiting