Ideally, work will be more about passion than it is about necessity. Employees who find something they are passionate about have the opportunity to find true happiness in their work, and additionally can benefit their organization tremendously. Also the work they do with passion has to be meaningful such that it elevates their confidence and their personality. So working without passion is like living without oxygen, so whenever an organization does talent acquisition, the first and foremost thing that has to be done is to gauge the level of passion that exists in the person that you wish to hire. Also an organization must have a better assessment of the percentage of passionate candidates who meets the criteria, to make sure that every minute spent for hiring is valuable.
There may be situations where you get to interview talents with great resume and work experience but with lack of passion, and this can happen majority of times to the HR which can be quite frustrating and unsatisfied. So how do you handle such a situation? How can you assess the passion of the candidates? Oprah Winfrey rightly said, “Passion is the energy that comes out when you focus on what excites you.” Given below are the top 4 visible signs to assess the level of passion in a candidate.
Check for enthusiasm
When a candidate enters the interview room, you can easily tell whether he or she is keen to attend the interview or not. First analyze the individual’s level of enthusiasm, check whether they are happy about the opportunity. This can be achieved by simply looking at his or her demeanour and their way of answering the questions in the interview.
If the candidate attends the interview with zeal and a cheerful personality, then that particular candidate might be interested in the job opportunity. Simply ask job-related questions and observe how they react to the questions. Frame the questions in such a way that it connects their passion, enthusiasm and the position that they are ready to accept. For example you can ask them “Tell me about your ideal position, Explain your dream job, What is important to you in your new role?”
Evaluate professional-growth goals
To evaluate whether the candidate has a passion for the job, you can ask about the professional growth goals he /she has. A good question to ask a candidate is, “if you were hired, how will you manage your role differently here?” If the candidate responds with an answer that does not provide clues to something that is bigger than what he or she has to offer now, then it is a sign that the candidate is not growth-oriented. Individuals who are passionate about something will always search for things and ways to become better, happier and smarter.
Learn their hobbies and interest
While interviewing a candidate for a specific job position, pay attention to their hobbies. Ask them to tell you what they love doing or during leisure time when they are not working. Passionate people show great enthusiasm when explaining or showing what they love doing, both at work and at leisure times. Individuals who do not have hobbies are probably not passionate people. And they might not be able to bring the diversity you are looking for.
Assess their efforts for self-development
A passionate individual is always on the lookout for opportunities and is barely satisfied with where they are. This means that they will always try to improve their skills, their knowledge base, and development goals. They are more willing to invest their time and money in honing their skill sets and improving their knowledge related to the job market. You can ask the candidate about the most recent acquired skill or what they are doing at present to develop themselves and can easily set SMART goals for them. This will give you an idea of whether the individual is passionate and business goal-oriented or not.
Passion is an important personal trait that employers should look out for. A passionate employee will work hard to ensure that the business goals, objectives and Key Results of the organization are achieved. This means that you will be able to make profits if you hire the right employees who have passion in what they do. Moreover, passionate people look for distinct ways to formulate a productive business strategy by using certain metric indicators like KPIs that help one achieve their target with measurable results. These kinds of actions can be done with OKR tools that let you manage the OKR and KPI effectively.
