The dream employee: fact or fiction?

Is it possible to recruit a candidate who will not only perform well in their new position but fit in with your team and boost business? In other words, is the dream employee fact or fiction?

Our answer is an emphatic yes.

Naturally, there are challenges involved in making dreams come true. Certain criteria must be met by superstars to ensure they live up to all expectations, so it’s important to pinpoint qualities that deliver the full package.

No matter what their job description or title may be, the dream employee must also be three things.

First, they must be ‘The Communicator’. It sounds like an action movie set in the world of HR, but the art of communication is hugely impactful in many different elements of any organisation – from frontline operations through HR and admin and right up to the boardroom. The ability to translate a programme of daily tasks and the company’s core mission into words that are understood and acted upon keeps teams in tune, in sync and in action. It provides a streamlining of information for strategies, followed by laser-sharp precision when it comes to their execution.

As well as focusing minds, communication is about listening to and sharing insights from colleagues, clients and customers – this is a leadership quality that positions your super-agent as an invaluable node for future expansion and business growth.

The dream employee must also be ‘The Owner’. No, they don’t have a majority stake in the business – not just yet anyway – but they are fully invested physically, mentally and emotionally.

This phenomenon used to be referred to as being a ‘company man’, back when jobs worthiness, cronyism and sexism were all the rage. Thankfully, we live in a new world that encourages responsibility, transparency, accountability and equality.

Today’s ‘company people’ are those who gravitate naturally to companies, managers, and projects they can ethically and wholeheartedly buy into.

They’re ready to accept professional challenges and embrace non-linear growth in their careers, while peers are fastidiously working up the ladder one rung at a time, constantly looking at who’s above and below.

Taking total ownership of the job and everything that goes with it makes a desirable worker who will become an unparalleled team leader. Remember, too, it’s not enough to recruit the best: you must also retain the best. So for your new employee to be so wholly invested means, typically, they are with your company for the long haul.

They are also ‘The Bold and Brave’. Education, technical know-how and experience can take a hard worker a long way but to have a long-term positive impact on your company fearlessness is imperative.

The bold and brave don’t always have the best ideas for solving problems, but they do have ideas they are courageous enough to act upon and see-through into results. This makes them innovators.

A dream employee may be rarer than a four-leaf clover, but they are definitely a fact, not fiction. And by looking out for their top qualities it’s possible to find them.

Of course, your quest begins with the best place to make dreams come true:jobs24.com.

Posted on March 11, 2020