When building your team, there is nothing more important than hiring someone who not only is good at what they do but who is also going to mesh well with both the rest of your employees and your clients/customers. A business is nothing without its employees. And in my 14 years of owning a business, great employees have helped my digital marketing agency become what it is today.
When an employee moves on or we look to expand, these are the five qualities I look for in a hire:
- Adaptability: Digital marketing is a fast-paced field. You need to be constantly evolving and ready to research and learn on your own. This means having the right mindset to want to learn and change and put new skills to the test. If you don’t have this spark and flexibility, you won’t last long in marketing.
- Resourcefulness: Marketing is a fast-paced environment. And when you have multiple clients and multiple responsibilities, being able to manage your time is essential! A good hire will have proven time management skills and be able to accomplish his or her tasks on time and with little-to-no supervision.
- A keen eye for the small stuff: You want someone who is detail oriented. Whether it’s reading an article 50 times, making 20 revisions on a website or simply paying attention to the colors and logo specs for a client’s brochure, a good hire is detail oriented. It doesn’t matter the job responsibilities or position title; details are crucial to any business. Noticing details starts with the hiring process. I’ll often get resumes with grammatical errors or even worse, spelling errors. Those go immediately in the trash. If a potential employee doesn’t care enough to put their best foot forward for a possible future boss, why would they for a client down the road?
- Multi-tasking ability: Most companies these days are looking for someone who’s not afraid to work outside their job descriptions. My agency is no different. We’ve worked to break down silos between departments so our employees can have a holistic view of the entire marketing process. Along with this, in marketing, every client will have unique needs for their business goals and you’ll have to learn to meet those goals. I look for hires with an ability to juggle tasks effectively without letting any drop.
- Openness: Culture fit is critical. This is key for both how the hire interacts with your team and how he or she interacts with current and potential clients. If a person doesn’t gel with my team or can’t handle talking with clients, it’s a sign they might not work out with job long term. At my agency, we utilize a trial period to ensure our new hires are slam dunks. During our introductory period, if it seems like the employee doesn’t fit our culture, has difficulty interacting with clients or perhaps the employee just didn’t like the work, we can part ways. No harm no foul.
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