Maybe you don't have any experience selecting applicants for posts at your company, but if you manage a team or perhaps you will do in the future, it's a good idea to know how to select good employees to help out the Human Resource department and participate in the selection process.

First, it's a good idea to screen the applicants and reduce the candidates to those that actually fit the profile. Now, this doesn't mean focusing on whether the candidate is clean, well dressed and friendly, although these are surely important - lets face it if they're not going to make an effort for the interview imagine once they're in. But in fact, you should consider many factors and think them through before you begin the process.

The following factors, for example:

1. Does the applicant have the knowledge, skills and abilities?

2. Ask the appropriate questions to understand whether their behavioural aspects and attitude are correct for the position.

3. Analyse the verbal and non-verbal behavioural aspects at the interview.

4. Finally, analyse your gut feeling, you shouldn't underestimate your intuition.

So, to be able to analyse these factors you need to do two things: listen and watch your candidate closely and ask the right questions. The questions you ask should help you evaluate all the factors you have defined before the selection process and you should ask the same questions to all the candidates. Also make sure the questions are specific, but force the candidate to make an effort to go into detail, for instance:

What are three things you like about your current job? Why?
Describe three situations where your work was criticised?
What do you expect to be doing in five years?

Last of all, always be on guard and look out for bad attitude cues - even the best candidates with almost perfect CVs can be the most terrible employees. Many times our selection processes are unprofessional and based wholely on intuition or qualifications, but this is simply not good enough. The workforce is probably a critical factor of success in most businesses and making it a competive advantage begins with a good selection process, placing more emphasis on skills and attitude that the job requires.