A lot has been said about the cost of hiring the wrong candidate and for good reason.
A bad hire is expensive, time-consuming, and frustrating — especially in mining and construction. When you’re dealing with budget and timeline constraints, the last thing you want to do is waste any more time in onboarding people only to separate ways even before the project is completed.
Good thing is, there’s a way to pull the plug on this circus long before it starts. Here are five things to look out for in candidates when recruiting:
1. Delivers results
Your clients turn to you to help them achieve what they can’t on their own. More than ticking off a checklist of skills, you also want to look at the results a candidate was able to drive and the value they were able to deliver before taking them on. This gives you a good picture of what they can bring to the table and how they can help move things forward for your company and your clients.
In the interview, ask the candidate about a challenge they faced and how they overcame it.
2. Long term potential
Regardless of how reliable your handover process is, things tend to fall in the cracks in one way or another. This could lead to confusion, unmet expectations and poor results that leave everyone, especially clients, unhappy. When hiring new team members, take a look at how your values align and their tenure in previous positions.
A helpful question would be about what they value in a workplace and how your company fits in the picture.
3. Value for safety and processes
So much of what gets accomplished in mining and construction is thanks to the processes and procedures in place. They’re there for a reason and anyone who wants to succeed in the industry should honour protocols. This ensures not just the best quality of work, but most importantly the safety of everyone on site. This also gives you an idea of how well they work with a team.
Check a candidate’s understanding by giving them a situation or case study around safety and processes. See how they would go about it if they were in the situation.
4. Responsive to change
The mining and construction industry is constantly evolving. With emerging technologies and changing expectations around sustainability, it’s important for candidates to have an open mind around change and be receptive to learning new things. Being responsive to change and disruption benefits individuals and helps companies thrive. This ensures that your people are trainable and your company is equipped to navigate and even leverage change.
During the interview, ask a candidate’s perspective on relevant issues that are affecting the industry or your company. Better yet, tap into their past experiences and talk about how they handled unexpected change.
5. Aligns with your culture
A good way to unlock intrinsic motivation and discretionary effort is to tap into purpose and culture. Individuals are more likely to deliver when they identify with their company’s beliefs and values. This gives way to a shared culture, as well as develops and preserves the dynamic between teams.
First, identify your own culture. Then, articulate what behaviours signal a willingness to take part in your existing culture. How do they view rewards and recognition? How do they connect and build relationships with others outside of the corporate environment?
The Bottomline
Unless you want to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of a bad hire, you’d want to make sure you only have the best players on your team. Sure, we’d love to have someone with the technical know-how, but no one really likes to work with jerks or spend the day babysitting outliers.
Having the right people in the right seats makes the best use of your time and resources. It also frees you and your teams up to do higher-value tasks. More than rushing to fill in a spot, it’s important that you take the time to get to know who you’ll be working with throughout the recruitment process.
By looking beyond the resumé, you open up new opportunities for your company to connect with highly-skilled and best-fitting talent.
Mining Recruitment Agencies
Unlike other mining recruitment agencies in Perth and around Australia, at Aston Advantage, our commitment isn’t to just help you find the best people, it’s to bring the best out of them.
With our Bring the Best™ Toolkit, DISC Profiling, and employee upskilling programs, we help you put a stop to:
- The bullsh*t and get to the point
- The empty promises and stand behind what’s said
- Short term fixes and get things right for the long-term
We also back up our placements with a risk-free, money-back guarantee. That’s the Aston Advantage.
Ready to find the best talent in mining and construction? Connect with us today.
