For HR managers in India finding the right talent has become a pain area, still they only want to hire a good employee or not hire at all.

In a recent study conducted by TimesJobs, 44% employers said it has become exceedingly difficult to find suitable talent over the last three years. A whopping 70% have even stated that the cost of bad hire is much higher than not filling a vacant position.

Reena Gupta, a hiring manager with an FMCG company says that hiring a good employee is the most critical and important thing for them. Understood, but in the current talent scenario where companies are in a war for talent, do we have the scope for this? Is a good or bad hire a matter of choice or a necessity? What do recruiters feel?

When asked about the parameters that make good employees, 55% of employers said that honest and 52% said reliable candidates make for great employees. Whereas, 58% employers said lack of enthusiasm is the key trait of a bad worker.

“Both aptitude and attitude assessments are critical in ensuring a good hire. Evaluating attitude and other behavioural traits objectively, however, has been a big challenge for recruiters. TimesJobs has addressed this by developing a sophisticated analytical engine that creates unique individualised proficiency graphs.” says Nilanjan Roy, Head of Strategy, Times Business Solutions.

“Analytical insights are drawn from candidate profiles through data mining so that recruiters can take informed decisions before shortlisting the profile. These insights graphically look beyond a candidate’s basic qualifications and evaluate their communication, analytical, creative, planning, organizing, leadership and interpersonal abilities, to ensure that both attitude and aptitude is a match,” Roy adds.

Good v/s Bad worker

With honesty (55%) and reliability (52%) being the top two behavioural traits, employers said good workers are also ambitious (45%), hard working (39%), passionate (35%), creative (33%), autonomous (32%) and confident (20%).

Nearly 49% employers maintained that bad workers, on the other hand, are the ones who are unreliable and 44% said they are not team players and lie. Other traits of bad workers are that they are irresponsible (37%), unfocussed (28%), make excuses (22%) and never take initiative (19%).

See: Recruiters and Hiring Managers Turn to Social Media Recruitment in India

According to Suman Rudra, India HR Leader NCR Corporation, employees should have the ability to understand the dynamic nature of business and feel comfortable in adjusting to the organization’s needs. Adaptability, flexibility, matrix organization, team working and making a solid self-contribution are keys to being successful.

Commenting on this, Anjali Goel, General Manager-HR, V-Mart Retail, said that at entry level, they look for candidates who are ambitious, enthusiastic, eager to learn and are good team members.

“At middle level, we focus on candidates who carry relevant business and operational experience and can mentor juniors and expedite their learning and outcomes,” said Goel.

At senior level, we look for qualities such as vision, core values, business acumen and the ability to align their skill sets with the vision and culture of the company, she further added.

Sector-wise break-up (Good Employees’ Traits)

• 45% IT/telecom, internet, dotcom employers would prefer hard working employees, while 28% would choose reliable
• 48% healthcare employers say reliability, 20% vote for honesty, 20% would seek for passion
• 40% automobile sector employers prefer honesty as key trait that makes for good employees
• 38% BFSI employers say reliable employees
• 32% manufacturing and retail employers prefer hard working employees

Sector-wise break-up (Bad Employees’ Trait)

• 51% IT/telecom, internet, dotcom employers say  lack of enthusiasm
• 36% healthcare employers say  unreliability, 34% say not a team worker
• 42% automobile sector employers say irresponsible
• 40% BFSI and retail employers say – lie, 22% BFSI say – unreliable, 28% retail say – not a team worker
• 37% manufacturing employers say – lack enthusiasm, 25% say – unfocussed

Female v/s Male Employees

The TimesJobs study also highlighted the good traits that are significant in female and male employees.

For female employees, 50% employers said reliability is the best trait followed by honesty (44%) and hard working (39%). Other significant traits are, female employees are ambitious and passionate about their work.

For male employees, 57% employers said being ambitious is the best trait followed by autonomous (50%) and confidence (46%). Other significant traits are, male employees are hard working and reliable. This TimesJobs Study was conducted with inputs from over 700 employers across India.

Also read: Hiring Outlook for 2016 in India

Image credit: techstory.in