By Dan Simmons

Every manager desires to have a team of successful people working with them.  Hiring successful employees starts at the beginning of your candidate search. If you have the ability to assemble successful teams, you’ll be respected by your bosses and remembered after you leave. The trick isn’t in knowing that you should be hiring successful employees, it’s in knowing how to hire successful people.

While past success doesn’t always guarantee future success, those who’ve had little success in the past rarely become superstars.  So while we can agree that it’s best to hire people with a history of success, it’s essential to determine exactly how to do that.

Below are four tips for hiring successful employees:

  • Check their attitude—Successful people are generally more positive, speak with confidence, and can quantify and qualify their success.  Unsuccessful people speak in generalities and blame others for their lack of success.
  • Look for a cultural fit—Even if the person you’re interviewing has a great track record of success and a great attitude, if they don’t fit into your team or uphold the ethics of your company, you’re hiring a problem, not a solution.
  • Review their track record—Get them to speak in specifics about their accomplishments and how they achieved them.  Check references, read their previous performance reviews if they can provide them, “Google” them, and talk with their friends.  If this person has had a great deal of success, they will be able to provide people who can attest to it.
  • Success-‘full’—Try to hire well-rounded professionals, not one-dimensional experts in your niche.  Take them out to dinner with their spouse or significant other, and see how they interact.  Find out what they do for fun and what organizations they support.  Dig a little deeper; the payoff could be worth it.

When it comes to hiring successful employees, talent alone is never enough.  There are other areas to consider if you’re looking to attract exceptional candidates with the potential to become high-performing, superstar employees. Consider these areas, and give yourself the hiring edge over your competition.