Learn how to identify applicants with a sense of urgency and responsiveness.
Instant Hiring Tip: Hire Employees with a High Sense of Urgency
A common trait of highly productive people and companies is a high sense of urgency. A high sense of urgency drives individuals and the organizations they work for to work harder than their peers but more importantly their competitors. Most employers realize the benefits of hiring employees with a high sense of urgency but how do you go about identifying those applicants with a high sense of urgency?
You can gain a lot of insight about how an employee will perform on the job and assess an employee’s sense of urgency during the application process. During the application process, one question you want to keep in the back of your mind is: how quickly does the applicant respond to your requests for information and other details?
For example, let’s say you call an applicant to schedule an initial interview and they aren’t available so you have to leave a message on their voicemail. How long does it take them to get back to you to set up an interview date? Does it take an hour or two? Does it take a day? Does it take multiple days???
Any hiring manager can probably relate to the frustration felt when dealing with an applicant who seemingly has all the time in the world and takes their sweet time in responding to requests. Unfortunately, this isn’t just frustrating but it’s also generally a future indicator of that applicant’s overall responsiveness and sense of urgency. And that can be a critical flaw if you’ve already concluded that a high sense of urgency is one of the necessary traits of your future employee.
The bottom line is that an applicant who does not display a high sense of urgency about getting a job (particularly in this job market) will most likely underwhelm you with their responsiveness should you choose to hire them. As the applicant takes their sweet time in responding to your requests, picture them working for your organization and being in charge of an important project with a looming deadline. How will you sleep the night before the project is due?
If you’re a hiring manager on the lookout for employees with a high sense of urgency and who get things done promptly, you’ll want to make a note of those applicants that respond quickly to your requests as they will have a higher probability of performing similarly on the job.