Ask 10 different managers about the defining qualities of a good employee, and you’ll probably get 10 different answers. That’s because what ultimately defines the “right fit” can mean different things across different roles, companies, and industries.
Many businesses, however, are looking for some common traits in their employees. Whether you’re hiring a manager, developer, or entry-level assistant, here are the essential soft skills and personality attributes any good employee should have.
TL;DR — Key Takeaways
What makes a good employee can vary greatly according to the type of role, company, culture, etc. Generally, a good employee possesses a mix of job-specific hard skills, soft skills, and certain personality attributes.
Qualities are innate characteristics or traits a person has. Skills are acquired through training or work experience. Both are important screening criteria.
Some of the key qualities of a good employee include strong communication and teamwork skills, a high degree of self-awareness, humility, integrity, confidence, and dedication. In total, we identified 20 top qualities.
Using skills assessment tests during the hiring process can help quickly identify candidates with preferred skill sets and traits through a mix of data-backed assessments and homework assignments.
What makes a great employee?
While there’s no single definition of a great employee, there are some key qualities that employers prioritize. Combined with the necessary hard skills required to perform the role, attributes like integrity, reliability, analytical thinking, and being a team player are the most essential qualities of a good employee.
Many job-specific and technical skills can be cultivated with professional development — but certain qualities help employees build up their acumen faster, no matter the sector or role. McKinsey calls these ‘foundational skills‘ — cognitive, digital, interpersonal, and self-leadership abilities that help employees develop specialized skills.
McKinsey
People with strong foundational skills (which people are calling power skills now) show greater adaptability to change, bring in a fresh perspective, and can succeed in a wider range of roles. Research also shows that traits like high emotional intelligence are essential to great management and serve as a strong predictor of employee performance.
So the next time you hire employees, think about both the skills and qualities they need to possess to perform well on the job. List these qualities alongside preferred technical-focused skills to attract better matches that will perform well on the job and fit into your company culture.
Qualities vs. skills
A quality is an innate characteristic or personality trait you have. A skill is a learned ability you develop through training or work experience.
For example, Layla has strong oral communication skills she developed as a debate captain in college and later as a sales rep for a cosmetics brand. She’s also funny and considerate, so people are naturally drawn to her. Layla’s confident speaking and active listening are skills, while a good sense of humor and empathy are her personality traits or qualities.
In the recruitment process, most managers want to hire employees with both strong soft skills and unique personal qualities, so the two terms are used interchangeably. The best part? You can vet job applicants’ soft and hard skills, plus personality traits, with different pre-employment testing methods.
20 key qualities of a good employee
The majority of hiring managers (84%) agree that new employees must have strong soft skills and demonstrate them in the hiring process. What are those soft skills and good qualities, though? Here are 20 ideal qualities of a good employee who’ll be a great asset to any team.
1. Communication
Being able to effectively listen, speak, and write with clarity goes a long way toward doing great work consistently and contributing to a good work environment. Apart from doing their work well, effective communicators also tend to be better team players and demonstrate higher leadership potential.
Why it’s important
A great employee with excellent communication skills conveys their thoughts well, has great listening skills, can reach a common ground easily, and understands others’ points of view. People who are great communicators are also statistically more likely to excel in management and personal efficiency and be engaged in the workplace.
Generally, when the workplace culture promotes a high degree of transparency and openness, it leads to mutual trust. And high-trust organizations experience fewer issues with employee engagement and high turnover.
Trusting employees are 260% more motivated to work, have 41% lower rates of absenteeism, and are 50% less likely to look for another job.
Deloitte
How to assess employees for communication skills
In the initial stages of the hiring process, assess how well the potential hire formulates their thoughts and explains their previous experience in their application and emails.
For a deeper take, administer a pre-screening communication skills test featuring questions to assess the applicant’s communication style, active listening abilities, and verbal communication skills.
A great free text question to test communication skills might be, “Tell me about a conflict with a team member you had in the workplace. How did you solve it?” Or, you could ask them, “You need to explain a complicated issue to a co-worker. How do you go about it?”
2. Teamwork
Effective teamwork includes qualities like active listening, accountability, empathy, adaptability, and consensus-building. A team player knows how to multiply their unique strengths with the abilities of others. They can communicate well, cooperate on shared tasks, and support others by their side to achieve a shared goal faster.
Why it’s important
Being a team player is important for 37% of employees, and 97% of employers believe that a lack of alignment influences the chances of success for a project.
Team players are also able to work in groups to boost internal efficiency. Groups of three to five individuals outperform individuals on complex tasks by processing information more effectively, generating fresh ideas, rejecting erroneous responses, and finding the correct solution.
How to assess employees for teamwork
Teamwork skills shine through during collaboration. So the best way to assess these are practical job simulations like:
In-basket/in-tray exercises
Role-playing simulation
Open-ended homework assignments
Situational judgment test
In each case, give candidates a mock situation they may experience at the job. For example, ask them to explain how they’d brief a designer about creating a new product interface or organize a three-person sales team to prepare a new sales demo for a client.
Top tip:
Explain the purpose of such tests. A recent study found that candidates perceive different job assessments as more fair when the managers explain how these match the job requirements. Doing so helps reduce candidate drop-off rates at the early stage of your recruitment funnel and promotes a better candidate experience.
3. Reliability
Reliable employees are consistent and dependable. They do exactly what they say they’ll do and never bail on an important deadline, task, or other commitment.
Reliability in this sense is also related to time management, as a reliable employee manages their time well, making them more efficient and a better investment when hiring. Time is money, and frankly, the more a (reliable) employee can do within 8 working hours, the better your return on investment.
Why it’s important
On average, an unplanned absence causes a 36.6% dip in productivity. So, you don’t want people on your team who disappear for vague “personal reasons” or clock off when the rest of the team is struggling to complete a project.
Instead, you want a great employee who is reliable, meaning they excel both in personal time management by completing tasks on time and doing their part in shared work. This kind of ideal employee also requires less supervision, allowing managers to focus on proactive mentoring rather than helicopter management.
How to assess employees for reliability
The best way to assess reliability is by assessing the person’s “proxy” qualities like integrity, time management, and overall motivation.
When conducting a structured interview, try to understand how the person performed in their past job. To get the most honest responses, ask indirect questions like:
Share an example of when you made a mistake in the workplace and owned up to it.
Have you ever done something against company policy? If so, explain why.
Have you ever failed to meet your employer’s expectations, and why do you think this happened?
Top tip:
You can also evaluate the person’s reliability by testing their time management skills with a short pre-assessment employment test. Ask questions about their ability to set and achieve goals, meet deadlines, and prioritize tasks.
4. Critical thinking
Critical thinking is a collection of cognitive abilities that help you assess and synthesize information, build logical arguments, and make sound judgments.
Instead of taking information for as-in, you can mentally check it for inconsistencies, fallacies, and conscious and unconscious bias. It makes up the bulk of a good worker’s problem-solving, decision-making, and analytical skills — which are required for success in almost every role.
Why it’s important
The World Economic Forum ranked analytical and creative thinking as the top core skills for employees to have. However, 39% of employers named critical thinking as the most lacking quality among candidates, according to a 2023 survey by ZipRecruiter.
What makes this so important on the list of good qualities of a standout employee is that individuals with reflective thinking abilities, also called “metacognition skills,” are highly intentional with their thoughts and can effectively regulate them (i.e., not allow personal life matters to affect their performance).
Moreover, they can employ more diverse thinking strategies to identify problems, analyze industry trends, or prioritize strategic action without resorting to irrational “gut” feelings. Overall, potential hires with strong critical thinking skills are also easier to train, and they often end up showing higher leadership potential.
How to assess employees for critical thinking
To identify applicants with high critical thinking skills, you can administer short problem-solving skills tests designed to test either their general cognitive abilities or logical reasoning. Such tests work great for entry-level roles when you’re looking for good employees to nurture.
For more senior roles, consider giving out a homework assignment or case study specific to the role. For example, you may ask a product manager to explain:
💬 “How will you generate 10k new monthly customers in 6 months? You have a budget of $100k and the ability to bring 5 people on the team. You can also choose between launching a new product feature or scaling an existing one.”
Other effective ways to test critical thinking skills include mock case studies, technical interviews, or group role-playing.
5. Honesty
An honest employee is transparent, sincere, and straightforward. They’re forthcoming in their communication and refrain from drama or office politics. They’re also more likely to develop positive relationships with other employees and contribute to a more positive work environment.
Why it’s important
Honesty defines good employees as it fosters trust, integrity, and open communication within the workplace. It ensures transparency, ethical behavior, and accountability, laying the foundation for a strong and successful team.
However, before you engrave “radical candor” into your corporate culture manifesto, check if the current environment is conducive to consistent honesty.
Are your managers open to hearing contrarian opinions and constructive criticism? Do you provide sufficient psychological safety to allow people to freely express their thoughts and feelings without any fear of judgment or repercussions? The best employees will look for this when interviewing.
How to assess employees for honesty
Honesty is a tough characteristic to measure, as people like to exaggerate their achievements or overstate the length of employment. You can weed out such applicants by asking for references and casually chatting up their former colleagues or superiors on LinkedIn.
Inconsistencies in job history or experience levels are also easy to notice during interviews, especially if you ask repetitive questions like “How long have you been with company X?” and then rephrase it as “So you have X years of experience in the said industry?”
6. Integrity
A good employee with strong integrity abides by their personal core values and always acts with ethical considerations in mind. They tend to avoid “gray zones” or risky moves that may involve slight rule-bending, even if this could cast them in a better light.
Why it’s important
A third of business leaders say behaving with ethical standards is an important characteristic of integrity, while half (50%) name compliance with laws, regulations, and codes of conduct as an important characteristic.
Fundamentally, integrity assumes both compliance with the organizational core values and operating principles, plus an internal drive to do the right thing when pressed with an ethical dilemma.
Top tip:
Apart from hiring people with strong moral principles, ensure new employees get debriefed on how your company makes decisions, practices ethical behaviors, and promotes transparency. This will help foster a culture of trust and honesty and lead to optimistic workers who deliver high-quality work.
How to assess employees for integrity
Aside from checking references, here are some questions you can ask potential employees:
Share an example of when you stood up for your beliefs in the workplace.
Tell us of an instance when you took the lead by setting an example for others.
Have you ever had to lie in your previous position? If yes, why did you do it?
Imagine you have accidentally gained access to sensitive corporate information. How would you handle the situation?
If you’ve found that your colleague has been acting unethically, what would you do?
Experts agree that testing for integrity is really difficult, so take a look at previous work history and do a background check if you have doubts.
7. Self-awareness
Self-aware people have a good grasp of their strengths, weaknesses, motivations, emotions, and general behaviors. They know how their perceptions and actions can affect others and can easily moderate their behavior in different social contexts.
Self-awareness, along with empathy and social skills, make up emotional intelligence (EQ) — one of the best qualities of a good employee.
Why it’s important
Self-aware people tend to be better communicators and stronger team players. A high level of self-awareness also leads to a better ability to handle conflict, meaning they avoid confrontation when their emotions run high and approach the matter later from a clear-headed place.
The Center for Creative Leadership found that 75% of careers get derailed for reasons related to emotional competencies, like the inability to handle interpersonal problems, unsatisfactory team leadership during times of difficulty or conflict, or the inability to adapt to change or elicit trust.
How to assess employees for self-awareness
Emotional intelligence tests have become popular. Many, however, lack scientific validity or don’t cover workplace behaviors, so it may be better to use soft skills assessments instead.
You can also pre-screen candidates for self-awareness or emotional maturity by asking questions like “How do you typically cope with stress and performance anxiety?” or even “What was some negative feedback you’ve received? How did you react, and what have you learned from it?”
8. Detail-oriented
Being detail-oriented means having a knack for spotting the tiny but oh-so-important details that others might miss. Detail-oriented workers are thorough, precise, and accurate in their work. They require minimal supervision and can be fully relied upon.
Why it’s important
In industries like finance, healthcare, life sciences, or engineering, among others, a missed coma or an omitted instruction can turn into a major mishap, making attention to detail top among the good qualities of a great employee.
One unfortunate junior software developer managed to wipe all data from the company’s production database on their first day due to a copy-paste error, for example. Over the years, human errors have caused numerous air traffic control incidents and an assortment of mildly embarrassing advertising typos.
Employees with high attention to detail help catch those mistakes before they go public or lead to bigger issues.
How to assess employees for detail-oriented qualities
The first obvious pre-screener: Detail-oriented employees will never send an email or submit an application form with typos or missing information.
Some other ways to identify candidates with high attention to detail include skill assessment tests, portfolio reviews, and structured interviews.
9. Leadership
Leadership qualities can be both innate and acquired. As a trait, natural leaders tend to be charismatic, selfless, decisive, and slightly magnetic — these are people you feel at ease with almost immediately.
Leadership skills, in turn, can be developed through a combination of work experiences and professional training. These include strategic thinking, adaptability, mentorship, and strong decision-making skills.
Why it’s important
A study by Seton Hall University analyzed how top leadership qualities change by country. North American employees, for example, prefer leaders with strong critical thinking skills, while Asian employees value managers who can attract, develop, and nurture the right talent.
What’s universal, though, is that companies need better leaders. In 2023, “leader and manager effectiveness” was the top cited organizational priority for 60% of HR professionals.
More specifically, employees now expect more modern management styles driven by authenticity, empathy, and adaptivity rather than the rigid, top-bottom chain of command.
How to assess employees for leadership skills
Depending on the role, industry, and seniority level, leaders may need to display various skills and traits, ranging from strong business acumen and commercial awareness to soft skills like team-building, negotiation, or consensus-building.
You can then evaluate the candidate’s leadership potential by testing for identified soft and hard skills or with situational interviews. It also helps to understand what kind of leader your team needs to help look for more specific qualities during the interview process. Here are a few. 👇
| Leadership Style | Description |
|---|---|
| Autocratic | Leaders make decisions independently without much input from others. |
| Bureaucratic | Listens to the employees’ input but may reject it if it doesn’t align with company policy or past practices. |
| Coaching | Focuses on identifying the individual strengths of each team member and emphasizes individual employees’ success. |
| Democratic/Participative | Involves team in decisions and seeks input and feedback, effectively building trust and engagement. |
| Laissez-Faire/Delegative | Gives team autonomy and minimal guidance. This works with skilled and motivated teams. |
| Authoritative/Transformational | Inspires and motivates the team with vision and goals to develop members and drive change. |
| Charismatic | Inspires and motivates with personality and charm to build strong emotional connections with the team. |
| Strategic | Uses vision, competitive awareness, and adaptability to manage teams and achieve business goals. |
10. Confidence
Confident people don’t overthink or second-guess their judgments. Thanks to a positive self-image and a strong sense of self-efficacy, they can get even the most challenging work done without constantly seeking support or approval from co-workers or superiors.
Why it’s important
A study performed by higher educational institutions in Spain found a direct link between high employee self-esteem and productivity. Confident faculty did better in their job and accomplished more staff.
The results also apply to other industries. After all, an employee who lacks confidence will struggle with decision-makers, which would further aggravate their performance problems. So look for people who already feel confident both in their current skill set and the ability to master new competencies.
How to assess employees for confidence
Timidness and insecurity will likely come off during the first interview, especially when you get scrambled answers to standard interview questions like “What are your strengths?” or “What sets you apart from other applicants?”
Although hiring an employee with low confidence isn’t a deal breaker, you’ll have to invest some extra time to help them find a stronger footing in their new role.
11. Dedication
Dedication comes from a mix of intrinsic motivation to do a certain type of work, combined with external validation in the form of regular praise, positive performance reviews, and, of course, smooth career progression.
Dedicated employees don’t mind going above and beyond the demand of their roles, often helping their peers and taking on extra tasks. Just the type everyone wants to see on their team, right?
Why it’s important
Dedicated employees are hard-working and engaged. You don’t need to nag them to do their part. However, dedication sometimes gets confused with passion.
Passionate employees are also uber-enthusiastic about their work, but their zeal may blow out. Committed employees, in contrast, also have strong work ethics and high personal integrity. Apart from doing something out of favor, they also complete work because they feel accountability.
Your goal is to look for the latter in your talent pool.
How to assess employees for dedication
Dedicated, committed employees rarely job-hop. They’re more likely to stay (and get promoted) with one employer, so that’s one sign to look for.
That said, with many people opting for nontraditional careers — freelancing, gig work, fractional positions — devoted employees can be also more drawn to a specific type of work rather than a company.
For example, someone working for 10+ years as a UX designer is likely dedicated to their craft and may be less interested in adjacent roles in UX research or interaction design.
12. Autonomy
Autonomous employees keep things cracking with or without the direct presence of others in their vicinity (or in their Slack inbox). They’re self-reliant, solve problems independently, and can set and complete personal or professional goals without excessive external direction.
Why it’s important
Employees want greater autonomy and flexibility, with 76% willing to quit their jobs if their employer rolls back remote work flexibility. However, less than two-thirds (63%) of organizations trust their employees to keep doing good work without micromanaging.
The balance is, as always, somewhere in the middle. Remote flexible work especially requires both the right organizational practices and cultural mindset, plus great employees with the right qualities.
If you want to have self-sufficient, independent, strong performers, you’ll have to create the right environment for them. At the same time, hiring people who thrive in high-touch, team-driven environments to work autonomously most of the time can lead to higher attrition.
How to assess employees for autonomy
People with a past track record of remote roles and/or independent contractor projects are more likely to show high autonomy.
In other cases, try asking questions like, “Please share an example of a new task you’ve completed without direct supervision. How did you approach it?” Another great question to test remote workers for autonomy is, “How do you typically plan your workday and decide which tasks to focus on?”
Top tip:
If you’re hiring remotely, verify remote work readiness. Determine if the new employee is suited for fully remote work with a Toggl Hire assessment. Test for adaptability, motivation, focus, and remote communication abilities with a proven test that takes only 15 minutes to create and administer.
13. Adaptability
Your capacity to adjust to changing circumstances and lingering uncertainties represents adaptability. Whether it’s ChatGPT going after your job or fickle consumer preferences eroding the demand for your service, great employees can roll with the punches and emerge on top.
Over 70% of employees name “being adaptable/flexible” as an important skill for their career over the next five years.
PwC
Why it’s important
From automation and generative AI to digital therapeutics, technologies are changing the way we work in almost every sector. Employees who struggle to adapt to these changes are at risk of becoming an organizational burden.
Already, many sectors are facing a skills mismatch — a growing gap between the skills their company needs and the ones employees have. People with high adaptability are more inclined to complete upskilling or reskilling programs to gain new competencies to navigate tough times and industry ebbs and flows.
How to assess employees for adaptability
Ask about previous experience with change:
Did you ever change careers or industries in the past? Why did you decide to do so?
Tell me about a time when the project priorities changed mid-way. How did you break the news to the team?
How did you adapt to the remote work policy when it was first enacted?
Have you ever performed a task outside of your role? How did you approach it?
Have you had to cope with a major change in your life?
The answers to these questions can give you a sense of how flexible and adaptable is a potential employee.
14. Positive attitude
People with a positive attitude are naturally more optimistic and approach new challenges with resilience. For them, a setback is an opportunity for growth and a catalyst for understanding new perspectives.
Why it’s important
90% of people have a co-worker who annoys them, and 57% have even considered quitting their job because of such an unsavory type. Employees with a great attitude are less likely to become the reason for workplace conflicts.
On the contrary, their cheerful demeanor can often help defuse tensions, plus it helps increase the morale of others. Such people are also highly coachable and eager to share their knowledge with others.
How to assess employees for attitude
You can get a good sense of a candidate’s attitude during a culture-fit interview. Try asking the next personality questions to reveal the candidates’ traits:
How do you contribute to fostering a positive team environment?
How do you stay enthusiastic when assigned a mundane task?
Tell about a time you had to share some difficult feedback with a colleague.
Asking such questions should help you get a better sense of the candidate’s life outlook and overall demeanor.
15. Results-oriented
Results-oriented people are strong-headed and love going after concrete outcomes. They’re good at setting SMART goals and figuring out the best ways to achieve them. This quality reflects a proactive and determined approach to task management, emphasizing effectiveness and accomplishment, which makes an ideal employee for many positions.
Why it’s important
Result-oriented are excellent hires for roles in sales, marketing, and executive positions, where they can drive quantifiable, continued success. They’re keen on hitting the set KPIs and thrive under extrinsic motivation — performance-based bonuses, leaderboards, and public feedback.
How to assess employees for results-oriented qualities
You can get a good sense of the employees’ result-oriented abilities by providing them with various problem-solving assessments.
For example, you can give away homework assignments with hypothetical workplace scenarios, requiring them to achieve a specific result (e.g., increase sign-up rates for a SaaS product by 15% or increase sales volumes by 20%).
16. Teachable
Teachable people are open and proactive in absorbing new knowledge, whether through mentoring, academic coursework, or casual exchanges with peers.
You’ll find them frequently learning new stuff via YouTube, chatting with their colleagues about doing things better, or completing various professional certifications. Such people often seek out proactive feedback and guidance to become better in whatever it is they’re doing.
Why it’s important
A teachable attitude promotes personal growth, effective collaboration, and continuous improvement — all important qualities in the modern workplace.
For example, new technologies have disrupted many roles and professions, forcing people to rethink how they approach task execution. BCG research found that across many roles, the share of the top 20 requested skills by hiring managers has changed by 10% to 46% over the past five years.
Teachable employees are more eager to embrace new ways of working — be it using a project management app or operating autonomous manufacturing equipment. They’re also easier to upskill and reskill to support your workforce planning activities.
How to assess employees for being teachable
A good indicator of this quality could be a good collection of completed courses and certifications listed on the person’s LinkedIn profile. Similarly, you can recognize an eager learner and teachable employee by seeing how they receive and implement feedback.
17. Optimistic
Optimistic employees focus more on positive outcomes and opportunities than temporary challenges and setbacks. They’re motivated to keep going because they’re certain success awaits them just around the corner.
Why it’s important
Similar to people with a positive outlook, optimists contribute to creating an uplifting work culture. Their enthusiasm inspires others to also act with more certainty and dedication.
In fact, a study by Leadership IQ found that optimistic employees are 103% more inspired to give their best effort at work than workers with low optimism. However, the same study claims that only 13% of workers tend to have high optimism levels, while 33% maintain low or moderately low optimism.
How to assess employees for being optimistic
A personality test can indicate whether someone is optimistic or pessimistic. However, studies also show that such tests are inconclusive as the same person can get widely different results each time.
Your best bet is to use a mix of behavioral interview questions to better understand how the person acts and thinks in different circumstances.
18. Humility
Humble people are modest and unpretentious. They don’t think they’re naturally better than everyone else and openly acknowledge their personal shortcomings.
Humility also involves a high degree of self-awareness and openness to new ideas. Employees who are humble are more receptive to feedback and recognize the value other people bring to their workplace. They’re more likely to be strong team players, dependable associates, and great leaders.
Why it’s important
Humble people become effective leaders, with a recent study of tech teams revealing that humble leaders help employees develop a better perception of themselves, which in turn, increases teams’ productivity.
Another study also suggests that a humble leadership model also improves overall employee well-being, while yet another study also named humility as a unique predictor of high job performance. Bottom line? Humble people are great to have onboard.
How to assess employees for humility
Humility can naturally come across in conversations, especially if you encourage the candidate to self-reflect on their recent accomplishments or ask to talk about the mistakes they’ve ever made in their career.
Some good questions to ask:
Did you ever make a big mistake at your job? How did you handle this, and what did you learn in the process?
Can you please walk us through this project on your resume? What was your contribution, and how did others support you?
How do you usually give feedback to others? Can you give me an example?
🔥 Did you know? In psychology, the six intrapersonal aspects of humility are a willingness to see ourselves truthfully, an accurate perception of our places in the world, an ability to acknowledge our mistakes and limitations, openness, and low self-focus.
19. Tech-savvy
Nearly every job today requires technical or hard skills. For some roles, it could be basic knowledge of office software and teleconference apps. For others — first-hand experience with coding tools, knowledge of connected hardware, or enterprise cloud platforms.
Why it’s important
Almost 18% of the global workforce could be automated as new technologies like machine learning, generative AI, and industrial IoT take over business processes.
Emerging technologies displace the demand for certain skills while augmenting for others. Gartner found that even despite the layoffs, larger tech companies still employ over 150,000 more people in total than at the beginning of 2020.
Effectively, technologies have become the synonym of innovation and most companies are trying to get as much of an edge as possible by hiring tech-savvy people.
How to assess employees for tech skills
Practical assessments like short role-specific pre-employment tests or longer homework assignments are the best assessment methods for skills related to being tech-savvy. Coding challenges, pair programming sessions, and technical interviews with senior IT specialists are also excellent methods.
20. Engaged
Engaged employees have a deep sense of involvement in their role. They’re proactive, contributing to higher personal productivity and job satisfaction.
Why it’s important
Nearly six in ten employees are physiologically disengaged from their work, and Gallup reports that the problem of low engagement costs $8.8 trillion, or 9% of global GDP.
Engaged employees, on the contrary, are more likely to stay with their current company, go above and beyond at work, and contribute 15% more effort than their disengaged peers, Gartner found.
How to assess employees for engagement
Human resource managers evaluate employee engagement levels via anonymous general surveys or 360-degree feedback tools administered team by team.
But if you want to figure out if the particular applicant will show high levels of engagement, chat them up about the reasons for applying to this job. What made them particularly excited about the role? What do they know about the company and its values? How do they feel about the culture?
Prioritize people who did their research and can name at least several factors that attracted them to your company.
Hire quality employees with Toggl Hire
The best way to find out if a potential candidate has all of the qualities of a good employee is through quantitative, comparable data.
With Toggl Hire, you can easily test candidates’ soft and technical skills with customizable tests. We’ve got hundreds of pre-made tests in our test library to evaluate skills like teamwork, negotiation, the ability to work remotely, and more!
👉 Sign up for a free account to see how skills testing works and start identifying top qualities for your next hires.
Elena is a senior content strategist and writer specializing in technology, finance, and people management. With over a decade of experience, she has helped shape the narratives of industry leaders like Xendit, UXCam, and Intellias. Her bylines appear in Tech.Co, The Next Web, and The Huffington Post, while her ghostwritten thought leadership pieces have been featured in Forbes, Smashing Magazine, and VentureBeat. As the lead writer behind HLB Global’s Annual Business Leader Survey, she translates complex data and economic trends into actionable insights for executives in 150+ countries. Armed with a Master’s in Political Science, Elena blends analytical depth with sharp storytelling to create content that matters.
